The main kitesurfing season in Sri Lanka is from May to October, when the wind is strong and consistent. But under the winter months Decemeber-February it is also possible to kite here. The wind in the low season is light, and sometimes you’ll get surprised by heavy rain, but the wind percentage is still good and you’ll get many days on the water with nice lightwind, perfect for freestyle tricks. 

We started the vacation in a little village called Kappalady, which is an undiscovered kitesurfing spot close to a small lagoon, about 20 km south of the bigger famous lagoon at Kalpitiya. In Kappalady lagoon we had a few really good kitesurfing sessions, where we were almost the only ones on the water. The lagoon in Kappalady is right on the beach, so if you prefer kitesurfing in the ocean you can easily enter the ocean.

Kitesurfing in Kappalady

For me it was perfect to start the kitesurfing vacation in Kappalady, because it’s such a remote and relaxed place. You have the beach all by yourself, exept for a few local fishermen. After sunset it’s really quiet and the only sounds you hear are the birds singing and now and then, a call to prayer from the mosque nearby.

We stayed at the hotel Kappalady Kitegarden, which turned out to be a good choice. It was about 200 meter to the lagoon (a bit longer to the launching area), about 5-10 minutes walking. Our hotel with pretty, clean rooms with AC and hot water differed from the other houses nearby in the small village.

Kappalady Kitegarden and the small lagoon is a good choice especially at the high season, when the wind direction is perfect for the small lagoon. But it was good also in the low season, even if we took a tuktuk to the big lagoon a few days when the wind was better there. But if you want to relax, go to Kappalady. And eat the delishious food at the hotel, which was the best spicy Sri Lankan food I have tasted so far.

Read more about kitesurfing in Sri Lanka at kitesurfersblog.com.

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I will definitely be back in Tarifa one day but right now I want to take a look back and remember those amazing sessions we hade there! Here is a kitesurfing video Jonathan and I edited – better late than never! Enjoy!

(if the video does not show in your country you can watch it on Vimeo instead).

I also recommend to watch this other video we made from Tarifa, where you get a better look of the city in Tarifa!

Read more about our trip at Kitesurfersblog.com

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We were 7 friends that stayed at Planet Surf Camps, a surf camp where we also got surfing lessons five days of our stay. The surf was actually really good. All days of our surf scool we had nice, clean waves rolling in, some days a little bit better than the other. The wavesurfing season is in the winter, and even though the best winds are in the summer we also got a few really nice kitesurfing days on the water, too.

I have been travelling to a lot of places for surfing, and I have to admit that Fuertevenura is one of the best. The kitesurfing spots were great, the surfing was super, the people at the surf camp were friendly, the teachers were very helpful, the weather was warm (for beeing Europe), the flight was not too long and the food was great.

If you are planning your surfing or kitesurfing vacation, give Fuerteventura a shot! Here’s a few tips that’s helpful if you decide to visit the windy, Spanish island.

• Invite your friends to the trip, it’s fun to join the surf lessons togheter with friends!
• Buy cheap flights – you can find really cheap flights to Fuerteventura
• Bring a 3/2 long wetsuit in the winter, that was warm enough
• Stay in Corralejo (close to many surfspots)
• Book accomodation at Planet Surf Camp – or some other surf camp, but this was a great one!
• Rent a car from the airport when you arrive (perfect if you want to see more of the island)
• Eat dinner at the local areas close to the harbour where the food is cheap and delicious.
• Surf, eat, sleap, repeat and enjoy you perfect vacation!

Surf teacher Gala preparing us for the spot Rocky Point

Planet Surf Camps was situated in Corralejo, in a new, fresh house with a lot of rooms for 2-6 people. The rooms were simple, but fresh and clean. You could hang out with the other guests in the living rooom/kitchen or outside on the balcony, where there also was a ping pong table, a billiard table, indo board, chill out area and a small pool.

Surfhouse to the right

We got divided into two groups, depending on how much surfing we have done before. We surfed for about 3 hours a day, usally in the morning but sometimes in the afternoon – depending on the best swell of course. The surf teachers stuffed us into a car and drove to the best spot for the day, so you never had to worry about the forecast and swell yourself which I think was great.

Me and the surf teacher Marco on the crossing each others boards

Personally I learned a lot from the course. I learned how to use the channels to easily get out to the waves, to get up on the board properly – but most important I finally learned how to turn on the wave! The teachers were riding with us all the time, and gave some great advises that I will keep in my mind from now on:

• Chest, butt, back foot, frontfoot – how to stand up properly!
• Arms in front, not to the sides (this was something I had to work on a lot!)
• Arms and eyes to the side you want to turn – and weight down.
• Weight forward for getting more speed.

I loved the trip and Fuerteventura is definitely a place I would like to visit again. If you are planning on going somewhere warm in the winter, Fuerteventura is one of the best places within a short flight time from Northern Europe. The weather is a lot like the Finnish summer, so the temperature varies but can give you everything between sunny afternoons in bikini to cold nights in winter jacket.

And as said before the kitesurfing was also surprisingly good. The famous Flag beach was ok with pretty consistent side-onshore, but you had too watch out for the rocks close to the beach on low tide. They  were really sharp and the board can get damaged pretty easily.

Watch out for the sharp reef on low tide!

The other spot we found, close to the lighthouse in El Cotillo, was a small lagoon with perfectly flat water, so nice! I practised tricks here for 1½ days and could have stayed there.. The spot was good only on high tide, on low tide it was to shallow and too many rocks. A little bit crowded though sometimes. But i loved it.

Last but not least, here’s more photos from the trip and also a short GoPro-video made by Planet Surf Camps!

Here you find more info about Planet Surf Camps!

My wetsuit: Rip Curl Dawn Patrol 3/2

Kitesurfing gear: Airush Razor kites and Airush Diamond board

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25-29 June I am having a training and kitesurfing camp togheter with Viima Kiteboarding in Hvide Sande, Denmark. Everyone interested in training and kitesurfing are welcome to the camp – beginners in kitesurfing can do a kitesurfing course if they want to, and advanced riders get trick tips and hints for learning new freestyle tricks!

The workouts are going to be a mix of running technique, functional workouts, crossfit, SUP-traning, bodybalance and stretching. And of course a lot of kitesurfing on the best spots of the day!

I love that the camp is held in Hvide Sande, a really good kitesurfing spot, perfect for both beginners and more advanced people. I visited Viima Kiteboarding in Hvide Sande in the summer 2012, and discovered a supernice kitespot, – big waves for kitesurfing in waves or traditional surfing in the sea and flat water for freestyle in the lake.

Going for a raley in Hvide Sande, 2012

The camp is held in finnish, english or swedish – depending on what you prefer! The price for the KiteCamp is 199 €, including all the workouts and the accomodation at Viima B&B. If you are interested you can sign up here on facebook!

Wave session in Hvide Sande, 2012

Sounds fun? Hope to see you in Hvide Sande! 

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The water is still very cold and air temperatures vary a lot, but I have not been freezing thanks to Helsinki Surf Shop. I am very happy with my brand new and good looking Rip Curl Flashbomb E4 wetsuit. The Flashbomb wetsuit is thinner than my old winter wetsuit, just 5/3 mm, but thanks to the good quality it’s as warm as my old 6/5/4. But I prefer the Flashbomb so much more – not only beacause it’s nicer design – but beacause it allows more movements and flexibility. Thin and flexible, but still very warm. The old wetsuit was warm but I also felt like a michelin in it. The new Flashbomb keeps me as warm as the old one (if not warmer) even if it’s thinner, but allows me to move and do tricks without the  feeling of beeing trapped in the wetsuit.

Flashbomb E4 comes in two different colours for women. I got to choose between both of them and decided to go with the one to left in grey and purple. Love the colours!

Rip Curl Flashbomb E4 is actually called the world’s lightest, warmest, most flexible and fastest drying wetsuit. Rip Curl says this about the Flashbomb E4: “For the Surfer who wants the best wetsuit possible. No compromises. Constructed with the most advanced neoprene and loaded with the latest ocean technology.”

I can agree with this! I am usally freezing a lot, but the Flashbomb 5/3 keeps me warm even in a water with just a few plus degrees.

Flashbomb E4 has a nice new technology which you can see when you turn the fabric inside out. The inside is made in a soft, rug-looking fabric which immediately wicks the water away.

Lohtaja 24.4.2014. It was not the easiest to get the neoprene shoes inside the tiny boots so I started on the beach.. ;)

Last week I also got one session in Crete, Greece, on a vacation trip. Crete is not the best place for kitesurfing, but I really enyojed the nice big waves! And I loved the fact that I was kitesurfing in my Rip Curl summer wetsuit. Even if I love the Flashbomb I still prefer to surf in warmer waters… But who doesn’t. A few more weeks here in Finland and I can leave the gloves, shoes and hood home!

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The goal for Red Bull Ragnarok was to snowkite the 15 km track 5 times around as fast as possible.

The place for Red Bull Ragnarok was really nice on the most beautiful glacier, and a lot of people was already there when we arrived. We met both old and new friends at the event, and surprisingly many other from Finland participated as well. The day of the race we had really beautiful and sunny warm wheather, but the wind was very light. So we pumped the biggest kites, put them in the air and waited for the start signal toghether with approximately 200 other kites, trying my best not to get tangled with any other kite. The start signal went and the adrenaline rushed into the blood. The wind was very light at the start area, but I hoped it would be better further ahead.

But as I approached the first gate of the track, which was on top of a small mountain, I saw how the kites ahead of me, one after one, fell to the ground. The wind at the first gate was close to zero. Also my kite went down, and I got it up a few times back again, until I gave up and walked, like everybody else around me also did. I walked with the kite in my hands up on the mountain, but on the top of the mountain the wind was not any better. So I walked, tried to kite, walked, tried to kite, walked some more and kited some more. Snowboarded  downhill with either the kite in the air or in my hands. At the bottom of a valley it was not so fun anymore. Well, the sun was shining and I talked to friendly people with the same problems like me, but I was tired and thirsty. Physically it felt like a marathon. I did not bring any water with me on the track, beacause I thought that I would be back so quickly on the finish line. But there I was, in the middle of nowhere starting to feel the symptoms of dehydration one after one. The only thing I could think of was water.

I could see the second gate from the valley so I diceded to walk there so I could get some water and continue if there was more wind. But when I arrived there was nothing to drink there (a girl borrowed me some of here water and it tasted sooo good, but I did not want to drink to much of it since she still continued) and there was also no wind, so I gave up and jumped on a scooter back to the starting line. At that time I had been out on the track for three hours. Disappointed, but I could not really care beacause I knew that I had to get water to continue. And boy that water and red bull tasted  great at the finish line! After som rest and hydration I kited some more on the glacier close to the starting and finishing line where the wind was stronger.

So Red Bull Ragnarok did not go as espected but I can not blame anything else than the wind. Next year I will bring bigger and faster kites and also have some water with me on the track. This year the guys with the biggest kites won, and the unlycky people with small C-kites like me had really no chance at all. I love love love my Airush Razor for freestyle, but it’s main area is clearly not lightwind racing… ;)

So the gear really matter in light wind lika this. The fastest guys this year had big foil kites. You find the results here if you want to take a look.

We got one more day of snowkiting, the day after the race, which was fun. Stronger wind next day, but foggy so it would have been dangerous to held the competition then. But after all I think that Red Bull Ragnarok was a really cool experience and I would love to participate next year too. I just want some more wind for next year, please!

Here you find more pictures from Red Bull Ragnarok 2014.

Here is a video when you can see the start and how it looked at the first gate.. :)

And Highlights of the 2014 Red Bull Ragnarok:

The post Red Bull Ragnarok snowkiting competition in Norway 2014 appeared first on KiteLina.

Cape verde is one of the most windy places in the winter, and doesn’t have too long flight time from Europe, which makes it to a favorite destination for a lot of kitesurfers and windsurfers in the winter.

We stayed at Sal Rei, Boa Vista in Cape Verde, which is the island south of Sal. Sal is the place that most of kitesurfers visit, but we wanted to check out the flat waters in Boa Vista. When we arrived we fell in love with the beautiful beaches right away. The water in Boa Vista is turquoise, and the beaches are fine, white sand like taken from a travel brochure.

Kitebeach Sal Rei, Boa Vista

Beautiful Sal Rei

And of course we were happy to see kitesurfers in the water the same day we arrived. The wind probability is close to 100 %  in the winter, so we had a lot of windy days, but also a few days without wind.

The main kitesurfing spot with the kite centers, close to the little city Sal Rei, has offshore winds and flat waters. Due to this offshore wind we realised that the wind quantity often was better than the quality. The wind was strong and really gusty sometimes, so it was difficult to practise new tricks because of this. But the water surface was super nice, so when you found a good windy spot it was still really good kitesurfing!

Friendly staff at kitecenter Buccaneers Beach, Sal Rei

But one great thing about the spot in Sal Rei was the waves just in front of the kitecenter. The waves were perfect for kitesurfing in waves with the offshore wind, and I also enjoyed the waves with a Stand Up Paddleboard a few days. Depending on the days the swell varied from small tiny ones to bigger waves that broke further out from the beach.

Enjoying one calm day on SUP in the waves

The water was warm enough for rash-guard and shorts, even though I preferred wetsuit for kitesurfing.

But the best thing with Boa Vista is actually that you can choose between different spots, and there are kitesurfing spots on almost every side of the island. One beach we visited two times was Pont Antonio, on the north side of the island, were the wind was consistent onshore, but still flat between the waves for freestyle tricks. I loved that place and would have loved to go there every day, but the trip there was quite expensive, because the driver was with you the whole day. But it was really good wind there!

Read Jonathans blog post about the different kitesurfing spots at Boa Vista if you want to know more!

Ponta Antonio

Going for a raley to blind

The road to Ponta Antonio – and this was one of the best ones!

But there was actually one more spot that was even better than Pont Antonio. It was at the southest tip of the main beach, still far away from Sal Rei. The wind was stronger here and also more consistent. We were here one day when it was light wind, and I loved it so much! Unfortunately I was the only one who could ride in the light wind, and the rest of the group decided to go back so my session was not so long on the water. That was the opposite to Sal Rei – quality, but not quantity!

At my favorite spot

Nice flat between the waves

As a summery I would say that Boa Vista is a great place for kitesurfers, but you have to be ready to pay for the taxi to the better spots if you don’t want to stay at gusty Sal Rei.  The optimal solution is to travel in a group of 4-5 people, cause then the taxi is cheaper if you want to check out different spots. And if you are enyoing waveriding you would probably be happy with Sal Rei too with the offshore wind.

Boa Vista is a perfect kitesurfing destination for small groups of 4-5 people travelling togheter.

But of course a kitesurfing vacation is not only about kitesurfing. The windfree days we were chilling in the sun, stand up paddleboarding and surfing in the waves. It was also fun to go swimming in the turquoise waters with all the turtles – yes, turtles were everywhere – I even bumped into one accidentally while kitesurfing!

It’s impossible to leave Boa Vista before tasting the local deliciosness – goat cheese and fresh fish.

And one big plus with Cape Verde is the beautiful nature and the nice laid-back attitude the locals have. “No stress” is the motto at Cape Verde, which makes it a perfect travel destination for those who really want to relax. The locals at Boa Vista were friendly and the food was great, especially the goat cheese and the fish. However, the small town Sal Rei is tiny and there is not a lot to do there, but we enjoyed the evenings with food and talking to locals, tourists and other surfers.

Heres some more pictures from Boa Vista – enjoy! 

Jonathan at the top of sand dunes, close to the kitecenter

Morning walk to the kitecenter

Fun in the waves at Pont Antonio

Warm up at Pont Antonio

Jonathan with 11 m2 Razor in light wind

Somebody taking a kitesurfing lesson at the sand dunes at Boa Vista

Found an old church at a roadtrip

SUP with Go Pro around my neck

Paddling out to the waves

Enjoying the waves

Jonathan surfing smallwaves with a longboard

Jonathan

“Walk of shame” back to the kitecenter in the gusty winds

Swimming and searching for turtles

Kitesurfing at my favorite spot

Jonathan kitesurfing in Sal Rei

Slackline at the kitecenter

Afternoon drinks on the beach

Afternoon SUP to a small island

Enyoing one of the last sunsets before heading back home to Finland

Sea shells on the beach

Bikini, wetsuits, shorts and rashguards from Rip Curl 

Kites of course Airush Razor 

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The abstinence is on max level right now. We are going on christmas vacation to Ostrobothnia on wednesday, so we are going to pack kites and snowboards and pray for some good winds and lots of snow on the frozen sea.

One other thing I am most exited about is RedBull Ragnarok in late March, which is a snowkiting endurance race in Norway, Haugastol. I think the race is about 4 hours or something, so it’s a really exiting challenge. Both me and Jonathan are going.

The post Waiting for the winter appeared first on KiteLina.

Kitesurfing in Philippines

We stayed in Philippines for 1,5 months, until late February. We decided to go beacause we read about Boracay on the internet and got in touch with some of the people living there. So we rented an appartement by English Bakery, which is close to Boracay’s windy beach, Bulabog. Bulabog was as windy as we had hoped for, and on the other side of the island, White Beach, we found the most beautiful beach we had ever seen. The time flew by too fast, but we enjoyed every moment and were kitesurfing all the time. We had just a few days off without wind, but then we enjoyed sunbathing, boat trips, snorkeling and mountainbikes instead! On Boracay you always find something to do. Boracay was truly a kitesurfers dream!

Close to Boracay you can find Union Beach, where we spent a few days too. Union Beach is even better for kitesurfing than Bulabog, beacause the water is really flat, the area is big and there are almost no people on the water. At Bulabog beach it can be crowdy sometimes, so when we wanted to have a lot of space we went here. Perfect for freestyle-tricks! A few times we took a downwinder to Union Beach from Bulabog, it’s possible if it’s blowing from the right direction. It was also possible to go upwind back home, or simply take a tricycle + boat back.

One trip, which was the best I ever made, was to visit Seco Island for two days. Seco is a desert island, approximately four hours from land. Seco was so amazingly beatiful. Turquoise, flat water with white, fine sand and sun from a clear blue sky. Perfect for kitesurfing with wind almost all the time. We slept under the stars with a kite as windstopper – so amazing! When we were there the wind was pretty strong, but we enjoyed it! We kitesurfed in the sunrise and all day long until the sunset.

 Wave- surfing in Indonesia

As we left Philippines, we wanted to visit Indonesia and Bali for some wave-surfing. We have never tested that before, so it was a new experience for both me and Jonathan. We arrived to Bali, and stayed there for one week. But Bali was not what we had expected us. We thought that Bali would be a paradise on earth, but it was not. Dirty beaches, a LOT of turists and bad surfing. We took beginner lessons in wavesurfing in Kuta, but decided to go up a little bit north after that, and ended up in Seminyak for the rest of the week. One day we were kitesurfing in Seminyak and one day we were kitesurfing in Sanur, but anyone of them was not so good beacause of gusty winds.

South in Bali we found beautiful Dreamland, Padang Padang and Uluwatu, but the waves were too big for us beginners, so we stayed in Seminyak and Cangu rest of the time. In Bali we liked the the surfing culture, the weather and the cheap clothes, but we were not happy with the destination and decided to give the neighbor island, Lombok, a visit. We bought a 6’3 surfboard and jumped on the ferry.

Lombok was how Bali looked like ten years ago, said the locals, and we liked it much more. Lombok was peaceful with an amazing nature and less tourists (just a few other surfers). The local people were friendly but did not know so much english. The food was not the best for someone that does not like onion, but we survived. We found a good hotel in Kuta (same name as in Bali) and surfed in Gerupuk.

And the surf there was amazing! The waves were a little bit bigger, and much more difficult to catch with the new small board. Jonathan rented a board and I used the one we bought. We practiced all day long, fell all the time, but were so happy when we got our first waves. So awesome feeling! I think we got maybe 4-5 waves per day, but all that paddeling was still worth it! We both managed to do some turns on the waves after some practising.

We spent one week in Lombok, and went via Gili Islands on the way home to Bali. Here we found an Island full of tourists but really nice nature. In Gili there are no cars or motorbikes at all – if you want to move on the Island you use either a bike or the horses! We spent one day in Bali after that, and headed for the last stop of the trip – Thailand.

Kitesurfing in Thailand

In Thailand we knew where we were going – to Pranburi, 3 hours south from Bangkok by car. We happened to find Pranburi just by searching after kitesurfing spots in Thailand, and found out that Pranburi is the windiest place in Thailand. Pranburi is a little village with not so many tourist but a lot of fishermen and stinky fish! But we loved Pranburi. The wind was lighter than in the Philippines, but when there were wind, it was awesome! Close to the beach we found some lagoons with flat water – just perfect for freestyle!

The water was really hot in Thailand, and we loved the spicy food. We stayed in a hotel close to the beach and woke up every morning to the sun and an amazing view from the balcony. And it was really fun that we happened to be in Pranburi at the exact time for the KTA (kiteboard tour Asia), so we decided to participate when once there. I participated in twintip race and freestyle, and Jonathan in twintip race. Either of us did not make it to the podium, but still it was a really great experience for competing, and I loved it! I thought that competing would be scary and awful, but as i went for my tricks with the people watching I was not nervous at all – I just enjoyed it! So much fun!

After KTA we stayed one more week, and after that it was time to go back to Helsinki. During these three months we became used to travelling and the chilly kitesurfing lifestyle, so it was really strange to go back again. Both of us wanted to stay longer. But I am grateful for the amazing trip we made, and I am hoping to do it again sometime. Now I have these amazing memories to remeber rainy days like today. And last but not least I would like to share my video that Jonathan filmed and edited from these three months – filmed in Boracay, Seco Island and Pranburi!

The post Surfing in Asia for 3 months – my story appeared first on KiteLina.

The kitesurfingvideo makes me so happy! Not because I landed every trick i tested, but beacause I remember how awesome the trip was and how fun we had when we were filming it. Enjoy the video!

Thank you Jonathan for filming and editing this video!

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