As I thought.... Dubai must be a great place for kitesurfing!:
http://www.alshindagah.com/janfeb2002/E ... ports.html
Kite surfing – the latest extreme sport gaining popularity in the UAE, with dozens of enthusiasts heading to beaches around the country to fly and surf when the wind picks up. The man largely responsible for bringing kite surfing to the UAE owns the only outlet selling kite surfing equipment in Dubai - Fatima Sports - where he is simply known as 'The Kite man.'
To start out in kite surfing you must first learn to control the kite in the sky - a skill, which The Kite man teaches to beginners on the public beach next to Wollongong University in Dubai.
"We are very lucky that the authorities in the UAE are relaxed in terms of allowing the sport to take place, but in Europe there are a number of public beaches where kite surfing has been banned. The beach next to Wollongong University was picked because it's the quietest in Dubai - or it used to be. Unfortunately, because Dubai has developed so incredibly fast, more people have heard about this place and when one kite comes, three or four cars come to watch. The biggest problem we have is people parking their cars right on the waterfront. Not only does it destroy the beach by ploughing it up, but it also becomes dangerous to kite surfers because when you have to land the kite you are contending with so many four wheel drives. "The beach needs to be wide as people are spread out more, but a beach where the dominant wind is offshore or there are a lot of rocks is no-go area. Other beaches that we go to are near the Jebel Ali Hotel, and the Ghantoot area is good because you can go from one end of the breakwater to the other.
Another place where you get extremely good winds - more so than Dubai – is by the Hamriya Freezone in Ajman. But the East Coast is not so good. Because the mountains are so close to the shore, the winds are incredibly unstable and not recommended for kite surfing unless you go all the way to the northern side of Fujairah where it gets a little flatter. But those beaches have public roads very close to the water's edge, which then becomes dangerous."
So may be one day we... europeans and yankees come kitesurfing to your place...
Ad there is evene a Dubai Kitesurfer message board
http://pub58.ezboard.com/fsurfing56200frm1
andreas
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: kruzlifix on 2002-09-01 19:43 ]</font>