Best kitesurfing spots in the Americas

Brazil and the Caribbean run mid-year into winter; the Baja and the Gorge sit on opposite sides of the calendar.

Cumbuco, Taíba and Jericoacoara, Brazil

Northeast Brazil is the most dependable wind machine most riders will ever see. The trade blows July to January and strengthens as you move north-west.

Cumbuco, 40 minutes from Fortaleza airport, does 16–26 knots on a normal August-to-December day, strongest from mid-morning to about 15:00 and easing after, with peak afternoons at 30. Taíba, Paracuru and Icaraí follow, and Jericoacoara at the far end runs 20–35 knots in high season.

February to May barely delivers anywhere along there. Cumbuco mixes ocean chop with the Cauípe lagoon; Taíba adds a smaller lagoon and a mellow wave; Jeri is a sand-street town with a wave out front and lagoons around it.

The Brazilian speciality is the downwinder: 20 km, 50 km, or a week of them with the luggage following by buggy. Beginners belong in the lagoons and river mouths, not on the open beach at Jeri, where the shore break does the teaching.

Cabarete, Dominican Republic

The Caribbean's kite town. Kite Beach has flat-to-choppy water inside and a reef wave breaking about 200 m out, on a trade that builds every afternoon. Two windows: June to August is the strong one, December to April the second, and September to December is the flat stretch at 10–20 knots. Hurricane season runs June to November, worst August to October.

The wind is side-onshore and there are schools everywhere, but this is not a shallow lagoon: expect chop, shore break, deep-water skills and crowd management from the first session.

No municipal ordinance covers the beach; what is enforced is the schools' own code: launch and land in front of them, go straight out once you are up, hold about 50 m off the beach while lessons run, and no jumping on the sand.

Long Bay, Turks and Caicos

Long Bay on Providenciales is a miles-long, knee-to-waist-deep turquoise flat and the easiest water to learn on in the Caribbean. Beginner The trade comes east-south-east and side-onshore: 15–20 knots on an ordinary day, 12–18 on a light one, 20 and more on a good one, November through August.

The station's annual mean sits nearer 11 knots because it includes the flat September and October spell, which is the stretch not to book.

La Ventana, Baja California Sur, Mexico

An hour from La Paz on the Sea of Cortez, La Ventana runs November to April on northerly wind: a daily thermal down an L-shaped bay, a venturi between two mountain ranges, and El Norte fronts every few weeks that push 25–35 knots for days.

A normal season day is 15–25 knots, most often 15–20 in the afternoon. The wind runs cross-onshore, so a rider who stops gets pushed back toward the shore. Beginners learn on the sandy sections at La Ventana, Playa Central and La Tuna, with the whole bay downwind of them.

Hood River, Oregon

The Columbia Gorge is a wind tunnel: cool Pacific air pours east toward the hot interior, and the westerly thermal runs May to September, hardest in July and August.

The Event Site and sandbar give 15–35 knots, smoothest between 17 and 25, on cold river water flowing against the wind, which stacks up short steep swell that is very good for jumping. Intermediate Current, barge traffic and gusts off the terrain keep it intermediate-plus, and teaching on the sandbar is restricted to licensed schools, so book rather than turn up.

Cape Hatteras, North Carolina

The Outer Banks are a 100 km sand spit with the shallow Pamlico Sound behind and the Atlantic in front, so almost any direction gives you a working side. The wind windows are March to May and September to November, roughly 10–22 knots on the rideable days, out of south-westerly thermals or north-easterly fronts; summer is hot and light.

Sound-side flats like Kite Point are waist-deep for miles. The rules are specific: under the 2026 Cape Hatteras National Seashore rules, kiteboarding is permitted at four designated sites, Haulover (Canadian Hole) and Kite Point on Hatteras Island, Salvo Soundside Beach Access, and Springer's Point on Ocracoke; kites are banned within 150 ft of overhead power lines, and the sound sites are day use only.