Hi,
This may have been disussed previously but ran a search and had no luck..
Anyway, heading to Europe for a few months on a holiday (july-Aug) and want to kite as much as possible, but traveling around by train and im not keen on lugging my gear around for that long.....
Is it easy to hire gear...?
Should i get my IKO before i go, to show im kind-of trust worthy....?
I am an experienced kiter, but when you want to hire gear im shure everyone says that.!
Any tips or advice would be great..
Also spots/destinations, im heading the Amsterdams coastal area, Greek Is, the coastal bits from italy around to Valencia - Spain and then to san sabastian.
I hope i can kite in most of that area.... that would be super cool.....
Cheers
J
Head South of Spain, to Tarifa and surrounds. Best wind, best parties (OMG). July - Aug is perfect. It's mostly 12m flat water kiting.
From there, youre only a ferry away to Morocco or a hitchhike to Potugal. The SW side get's better consistent winds. Very jealous.
tarifa is a great party spot at that time of year but the crowds on the water and the beach in july-august are ridiculous.
there are 2 different winds, poniente and levante. as benny says you will use a 12 half the time in the poniente wind, but if it blows levante while you are there you will need a 5 and you will need to go up the coast to bologna or canos de meca to ride as levante is offshore in tarifa itself.
Thats great info guys, looks like ive got more research to do....
Did either of you hire gear.....?
Cheers
Tarifa is awesome.. I used to live 30 mins up the coast from there.
You can hire gear from KTS (Kite Tarifa School), i think he used to charge like 10 Euros an hour, or i think they asked 60 Euros a day, is all brand new gear. The owner of the place is very cool, he speaks English also, his name is Danielle..
They have a website that you can look up,, there are some pics on there, you can see how crowded the place gets in summer..
There is also heaps of awesome beach bars, Arte Vida was favourite during the day..
Awesome, i plan to travel around Spain mid July-mid August too, was going to spend a week in Tarifa kiting, thanks for the info guys.
We kited Kremasti in Rhodes (Greek island) - not v impressive, choppy water and rocks - but Prasonisi in the south was really nice. Tarifa will be super busy but is a lot of fun.
Should be ok hiring gear as long as you sound like you know what you're talking about!
If you want to do some research, you could start with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitesurfing_locations
Enjoy!
make sure u get in everyones way, make a big mess everywhere, be a flat out douche and wear ur jocks around on the beach.
all great info has anyone flown in San Sebastian????? Don't know about trashing beaches as that sounds like a Euro thing to do but have ordered brand new kite pants to look like a douche...
I don't know how you'll go kitesurfing in San Sebastian.. When my friends used to go up there they never bother taking their kites,, but its got good surf, and Pamplona is only an hour or so away if you are into running away from bulls for San Fermin..
Tarifa is great but very busy as said. You can hire gear BUT they will not insure it so if you bend it you buy it, and the kites etc aint cheap there. week days busy weekends packed, prob over 500 kites, but big beach and you can head away from Tarifa towards canos de meca. if your staying in the town and theres no wind there look up the beach westerly as further on it could be windy, its weird there. We sat on the beach about 3-4 kms out of town with around 7 knots of wind on our bit of beach looked futher up beach 2-3 kms and they were out on 10m kites fully powered. Beware locals they think its their beach and they will just kite straight into you and then shout and abuse you for being there. But its a good spot, plenty of parties and nightlife. Enjoy
tarifa is a great spot, you can hire gear BUT they will not insure it so if you bend it you buy it, and gear is top dollar there. If its levante head to valderquiros(something like that) towards canos de meca just past hurricane hotel. Its slightly off shore but there will be another 200 people out there with you!!! and its on a corner so worst you will have 1-2 km walk back, check it out on google earth. When the Lavente blows it blows, I was there in July 2 years ago and it blew constant 30 knots+ for days. Used to go every year when lived in Uk its great midweek but weekends crazy prob over 1000 kites over a 8km stretch of beach. If you stay in Town and no wind there on a lavente look at beach at Valder*** and it may be howling there, its a weird place. But enjoy.
I spent almost 3 months kiting round europe this year. out of all the places i went to i never saw one kite hire or even a kite shop. i got a travel bag which takes a board, all your gear and 2 kites. only took my 10m and the other space i put my cloths. it all went down very smoothly. the only problem i had was flying from denmark to paris, the airlines tried to charge me extra but i pretended i could understand them and they gave up. if you want a great country with amazing wind def spend asmuch time in denmark as you can. its a bit of a treck but def worth it!!!! hope that helps
wtf would you want to kite with 500 kiters, and fly half way around the world to do it. Surely there must be plenty of other good spots in europe with much less kites on the water.
I have now definalty added Tarifa into my list (weekdays), but im adding it on the end of my trip because if its as good as you all say, i wont want to leave and wont see anything else.... I think i will still take my chances with the hire gear....
As Bennie said surely there are other good spots too.........
This website is really worth giving a look aswell. se.kiteforum.com/spots
Bunch of locations and even more information on each for wind direction, conditions, rules, etc.
Yea J- good idea to leave Tarifa to the end. I almost never left and wiped out half of my trip living in a "Groundhog Day" routine of kiting amongst topless hotties during the day and going nuts in the streets and bars at night.
Easist way to make friends? Just take to the streets with a big dirty $2 bottle of Don Simone Sangria and plastic cups. 
wtf would you want to kite with 500 kiters, and fly half way around the world to do it. Surely there must be plenty of other good spots in europe with much less kites on the water.
why the hell would you go to europe and not the south pacific? there are 1000s of islands that are 50 times more beautiful than spain's barren wasteland, and will end up costing you less than half the price. I would hate to see the carnage that happens at tarifa every year with 300 hero-kiters trying too hard, 200 intermediate guys, and 100 beginners thrown into the mix to keep it interesting.....oh god.
What's wrong with....
Samoa
Tonga
Niue
PNG
Cook Islands
Tahiti
Fiji
New Cal
.....etc
Yeah im going with the wife.... and mainly doing the torist thing... obviously kiting in a few of the nicer spots while im there would be great.!
Yes the south Pacific has some great spots too, but this topic was related to europe.
We are spending some time in the Greek Is. so i will check out some info on Paros and Naxos.
as far as gear goes, iv got mates spread out all over the place, but was looking at doing one big loop of europe, so not heading back to one spot.... thats a good idea though...
Aorta..... are you taking your gear....? maybe i can borrow yours:)
If you're in Barcelona drive half an hour out of town to castelldefels, huge long beach which gets good wind, say hi to Joan Dani on the yellow airush kite.
I agree with you Wishy!!! But to kite and travel Europe in the summer is awesome. The food, culture, chicks etc etc etc.
Have you kited on Tonga Wishy??????
