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What are the world's best hydrofoil travel destinations?

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tkaraszewski
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What are the world's best hydrofoil travel destinations?

Postby tkaraszewski » Thu Jan 10, 2019 7:14 pm

There are lots of well-known great kite spots around the world.

Tarifa, Dakhla, Cape Town, Cabarete. These are a few of them, but they're not all great for foiling. Ever seen a foil video from Cape Town? Definitely not very many of them.

traditional kitespots value different things than ideal foil spots:

"Butter flat" water. This doesn't matter on a foil. "Flattish" water is nice, but small chop makes no difference. The problem with a lot of "butter flat" spots is they're too shallow for a foil.

Depth. As mentioned above, shallow water is great for learning to ride a twintip, but bad for foiling.

Waves. Wave foiling is growing, and it's fun, but the types of waves that are good for foiling are different than the types of waves that are good on a surfboard. Sectiony beachbreaks are almost impossible on a foil. On the other hand, rolling swells are great for foiling, but sort of boring on a regular surfboard.

Seaweed. Seaweed doesn't really matter at all on a twintip, and just barely on a surfboard, but it ruins foiling.

Wind conditions. A lot of traditional world class spots are known for regular winds in the 2030 knot range or even higher. Spots that usually blow 12-15 knots are sort of overlooked, but this is plenty of wind for most foilers, and it doesn't make the water and waves so choppy.

There may be other conditions I've overlooked, mention them below if I've forgotten them! And of course there are other things that make any type of kiting more fun. Warm sun, crystal clear water, etc.


So, I'll throw out a few here. I'm only going to include places I've actually been, I want to here where you've been that's great for foiling, too!

USA - Hood River, OR
The gorge is well known for being super windy. And it often is. The foil culture that's emerging in the gorge is all about 5m surf kites. We use a lot of 5/6/7m kites all summer long. The gorge isn't known as a great flat water spot (despite the slider park), but it's a lot flatter than a lot of other place in the world when it's blowing 20 knots. I never loved riding river swell on a surfboard, because it's not quite like a real breaking ocean wave, but it's great on a foil. Also, the gorge has great scenery, and the foil is a great vehicle for exploring up and down the river if you're feeling adventurous.

Dominican Republic - Cabarete
When it's windy, the chop can come up in Cabarete, and it can blow seaweed in from who knows where, which makes for mediocre foil conditions, but especially early in the day, when the wind is first coming up, Cabarete is a great foil spot. Clear blue water, open space to look around, steady sea breeze, and great reefs for practicing wave foiling because you can always turn turn the beach and run to the flat water bay inside. When first coming to Cabarete I expected a mostly twin tip spot, but I actually think it's better for a surfboard or foil.

Italy - Talamone
A relatively light wind spot, but no problem on the foil, Talamone is an amazingly gorgeous bay. You can explore the bay in relatively flat water as the fetch is relatively short to the Mediterranean with Corsica and some other islands not too far offshore. It's a beautiful place to foil, with the main downside being that the shallow slope of the beach means you need to walk quite far out to water start, and you need to watch out for urchins.

Maybe that's enough to get people started. Where are your favorite foil spots?

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Re: What are the world's best hydrofoil travel destinations?

Postby Toby » Thu Jan 10, 2019 7:53 pm

Along the coast of Brazil.

Great winds, warm.

Eg Cumbuco gets deep quickly (besides the main spot which is packed anyway). Waves not that great.
But along the coast you will find several spots with waves. Eg Taiba gets sweet waves and is also deep.

Best waves November til March, wind for foiling is good til February. That’s for the NE of Brazil. The main kite area of Brazil.

But also further south along the coast you have thousands km of kite beaches.

Check on https://se.kiteforum.com/spots

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Re: What are the world's best hydrofoil travel destinations?

Postby AndersP » Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:04 pm

Maui
Immediately deep, side shore, nice water and air temperature.
Reliable wind, depending of the season. Weak wind at the beach, stronger when you get out.
Lots of foilers but not crowded. Good parking.
Reefs if you want to ride waves.
Relaxed attitude.
Last edited by AndersP on Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:41 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: What are the world's best hydrofoil travel destinations?

Postby Laughingman » Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:16 pm

LaVentana Mexico November to March +/- a month depending on the year
Side shore winds, Deep water instantly, big beaches, nice and flat to start and swells later in the day.

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Re: What are the world's best hydrofoil travel destinations?

Postby Laughingman » Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:27 pm

Roatan, Honduras ... I never foiled there but I did kite there... I thought the conditions were not good for twintip at the main launch way to choppy for my liking (many others did not mind it) but there are some awesome spots if you get a boat ride... but now that I am foiling I really do not mind disorganized chop and side shore winds... I think it would be a great spot foiling!

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Re: What are the world's best hydrofoil travel destinations?

Postby BraCuru » Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:39 pm

Nice topic! There will be so many of them as many users ;)

I've travelled a bit around the globe and finally found my paradise.
I visited it already three times. Always in winter.
I'll be back there in two weeks and believe I do not need to search anymore.
Guaranteed sun, warm water, acres of flat water and decent waves, superb winds for foiling, beautiful underwater life, foiling with dolphins, sharks, turtles, no crowds, peaceful days, kind locals, reasonable prices and flights.
Simply saying - the mission accomplished :) 10 of 10.
M A L D I V E S
It is great for my wife too.
I am foiling. She's paddling. We scuba dive together.
Our son will do his sick freestyle tricks this year :)

There are hundreds of islands and some of them are perfect for foilers but it is worth to remember that not all of them.
Guraidhoo:




Thulusdhoo:



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Re: What are the world's best hydrofoil travel destinations?

Postby Slappysan » Thu Jan 10, 2019 9:28 pm

My favorite aspect of foiling is actually the exploration. You aren't stuck in one spot like you are with a TT or SB. You are free to travel 10 km up or downind in an hour.

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Re: What are the world's best hydrofoil travel destinations?

Postby Laughingman » Fri Jan 11, 2019 12:59 am

BraCuru wrote:
Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:39 pm
Nice topic! There will be so many of them as many users ;)

I've travelled a bit around the globe and finally found my paradise.
I visited it already three times. Always in winter.
I'll be back there in two weeks and believe I do not need to search anymore.
Guaranteed sun, warm water, acres of flat water and decent waves, superb winds for foiling, beautiful underwater life, foiling with dolphins, sharks, turtles, no crowds, peaceful days, kind locals, reasonable prices and flights.
Simply saying - the mission accomplished :) 10 of 10.
M A L D I V E S
It is great for my wife too.
I am foiling. She's paddling. We scuba dive together.
Our son will do his sick freestyle tricks this year :)

There are hundreds of islands and some of them are perfect for foilers but it is worth to remember that not all of them.
Guraidhoo:
https://vimeo.com/258574423

Thulusdhoo:
https://vimeo.com/158800524
Great videos thanks for sharing!
in 7 days how many days are you getting out on the water in the Maldives?

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Re: What are the world's best hydrofoil travel destinations?

Postby Toby » Fri Jan 11, 2019 2:03 am

My first kite trip took me to Maldives ;-)
In 2000.

It was End of November...and I had 11 days of of 13 with wind. Locals told me I was lucky.
But it was just beautiful.
And winds should be just fine for foiling 👍🏻

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Re: What are the world's best hydrofoil travel destinations?

Postby grtlakes » Fri Jan 11, 2019 2:15 am

BraCuru your videos are stunning. Thank you for sharing.


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