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Praia de Chaves

Praia de Chaves - Boa Vista · Rabil

also known as Praia da Chave, Praia Chaves, Praia do Chaves

Part of Praia de Chaves, Boa Vista →

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

beginner-friendlymedium crowds

On this page

The spot
Wind
Forecast
Month by month
Water
Level
The scene
Launch
Schools
Tips
Getting there
Photos
FAQ

Riding essentials

Season

Nov–May

Months riders and schools name

How windy

15-25 kt

Character: trade

Room to launch

huge

access rules on record, below

Water

mixed

26 °C in summerOpen Atlantic beach over sand, with waves commonly reported around 1-2.5 m and sometimes 1.5-3 m further out

Hazards

Reported by riders

Level

Beginner to advanced

With a caveat: see Your level

BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced

Crowds

medium crowds · busy Dec Jan Feb Mar

Schools

named at this spot

From the airport

Boa Vista (BVC)

Transfer times under Getting there

When it fills in

No onset time is published for this spot.

Nearbystraight-line distance

Backup spotsWhere riders go when the wind doesn't work here.

Praia Carlota
Praia do Estoril / Sal Reino page yet
Varandinhano page yet
Ponta Antoniano page yet
Baia das Gatasno page yet
Praia de Santa Monicano page yet

The spot

Praia de Chaves is a long west-coast Boa Vista beach by Rabil, next to the VOI/Iberostar resort strip, with the spot coordinate at 16.1419 N, 22.906 W. The winter NE trade crosses the beach side-shore to side-offshore, so the wind is clean and the space is enormous, and the price of both is drift.

Swell and waves

This is open Atlantic: shorebreak, and waves reported around 1-2.5 m or 1.5-3 m further out, mostly in the December-February swell period. A mangrove lagoon behind the beach is described as flat and shallow, but check access, depth and whether it can be ridden at all before you plan lessons there.

Rescue and skill level

Rescue is not a given along the beach. The resort school works boats on its own frontage and the rest of the sand is wild. Chaves suits wave, freeride and downwinder riders who can hold upwind and self-rescue, and beginners should come only through a local school with confirmed boat support and a day the swell allows.

The wind

locals call it NE trade winds

Direction

cross-offwind blows away from land — rescue cover matters here

Direction to shore

cross-off

Dominant direction

NE to NNE in the main winter trade-wind season

Kite sizes

567891011121314151617

metres · typical quiver highlighted

The quiver, in words

A 7-12 m quiver covers the season. For a 75-85 kg rider that means 11-12 m on the light 15-18 kt days at the start and end of the season, 9-10 m on the normal 18-22 kt trade day, and 7-8 m through the windiest stretch from January to March.Take the smaller end seriously: the wind has an offshore component and being underpowered on a wave beach is worse than being on a size down.

Character

trade

Average strength

15-25 kt

Typical strength

15-25 kt on a normal trade day. The resort school quotes 15-30 kt averages across the high season and puts January, February and March as the windiest months; broader Boa Vista sources also report 16-28 kt days.

Generally clean and consistent on the open beach, but with a side-offshore component that increases drift risk.

Main kitesurf season is November to May, and the resort school's own window is 30 October to 9 April, daily 08:30-17:30, which is the most concrete statement of when the spot is serviced.

January to March holds the strongest trade. December to February is the wave period on this frontage, and lessons get moved to Sal Rei Bay when the beach is unusable.

Usable wind is sometimes extended into April, May or June for the broader Boa Vista area, but Chaves-specific teaching access varies with swell rather than wind.

Forecast

Live forecast

Windguru Windfinder Windy

Month by month

15 ktJan
14 ktFeb
14 ktMar
14 ktApr
14 ktMay
12 ktJun
10 ktJul
9 ktAug
10 ktSep
12 ktOct
13 ktNov
14 ktDec

avg knots per month · season highlighted

Modelled monthly averages. Highlighted: the months riders and schools name (Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May).

Modelled from weather reanalysis on a 10–25 km grid (~30-yr MERRA-2 reanalysis-based model climatology), not a ground station: reliable for trade and synoptic winds, understates thermal sea breezes and valley winds.

Every figure, month by monthKnots · Wind from · Air

Month	Knots	Wind from	Air
Jan	14.5 kt	N	22.2 °C
Feb	14.4 kt	N	21.7 °C
Mar	13.9 kt	N	22.2 °C
Apr	14.2 kt	N	22.8 °C
May	13.9 kt	N	23.3 °C
Jun	12.3 kt	N	24.4 °C
Jul	9.5 kt	N	25.6 °C
Aug	9 kt	N	27.2 °C
Sep	10.3 kt	N	27.8 °C
Oct	11.6 kt	N	26.7 °C
Nov	12.5 kt	N	25.6 °C
Dec	13.6 kt	N	23.3 °C

How this is modelledmodelled · ~30-yr MERRA-2 reanalysis-based model climatology

A weather model's cell over this place, not a station on it. Good for comparing places, weaker for one beach.

The typical daily max and the direction are columns of the table above, month by month. Highlighted months are the riding season from the spot record.

Vila de Sal Rei, Boa Vista, Cape Verde (weatherspark modeled climatology) · Weatherspark (Cedar Lake Ventures, MERRA-2 reanalysis-modeled climatology) · ~30-yr MERRA-2 reanalysis-based model climatology

The water

Type

mixed

Standing depth

The flat, shallow water is reportedly in the mangrove lagoon about 300 m inland behind the exposed beach. The main beach is open Atlantic, waves and shorebreak, not a confirmed standing-depth teaching lagoon.

Tides

Mid tide is the best stage. The tidal range, and what the tide does to the launch, is not documented for this beach.

Temperature

26 °C summer · 22 °C winter

Wetsuit

Boardshorts/lycra or shorty in warm months; shorty or 3/2 mm on windy winter days when water is around 22–23 °C.

Currents

Current along this exposed coast is likely, and nobody has measured or published it.

Conditions

Open Atlantic beach over sand, with waves commonly reported around 1-2.5 m and sometimes 1.5-3 m further out. The mangrove lagoon inland reportedly holds flat water; verify access and depth on the ground before planning beginner lessons there. The southern part of the beach belongs to the Morro de Areia protected landscape.

Your level

BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced

Beginner suitability is conditional. Schools teach the Iberostar/Chaves area from boats and there is flat water in and near the lagoon, but side-offshore wind, waves, shorebreak and thin rescue away from the resort zone make the rest of the beach intermediate ground.

Independent beginners should check the school launch, the boat support and the lagoon access first, or use the more sheltered Sal Rei/Carlota/Estoril teaching water.

The scene

What riders come here for

freeridewavesflat waterdownwindersstrapless

Quieter and more resort-bound than the Sal Rei/Praia Carlota kite hub; long beach with large empty sections, but activity around VOI/Iberostar and downwind arrivals from Sal Rei.

Launch and rules

three ways on to the water, and what each one asks of you

With a school or a boat

7 schools name this spot

See who they are

On your own

Room to launch: huge

Read the access rules

Somewhere else

4 spots nearby

All 4 spots within 40 km are under Nearby

Rescue

+238 599 27 37 +351 929 183 100

Rescue — full text1 min read

There is no lifeguard or public rescue service covering the 5 km beach. Two kinds of cover exist and neither is automatic. The resort school on the Iberostar/VOI section runs boat-based teaching through its season (30 October to 9 April, 08:30-17:30) and will normally pick up its own students; reach it on +238 599 27 37 or WhatsApp +351 929 183 100.

Paid rescue scheme

Separately, a paid rescue-ticket scheme sells 1 rescue for 25 EUR, 2 for 40 EUR and 5 for 60 EUR, valid for the whole stay, open to independent riders with no lesson booking, and covering assistance up to 2 miles from the coast in wind under 35 knots; ride without a ticket and the boat can bill about 75 EUR for the pick-up.

Its Boa Vista base is the Bahia Beach Club at Praia do Estoril, next to Sal Rei and roughly 10 km up the coast from Chaves, and how far south along Chaves that boat actually ranges is unconfirmed.

Beyond resort

Assume that outside the resort frontage you are self-rescuing onto a long empty beach.

Launch

Very long sandy west-coast beach backed by dunes, with the practical access points at the VOI/Iberostar resort frontage near Rabil. Most riding is an open-ocean beach launch on a wide sand strip, with a flat-water mangrove lagoon reported inland behind the beach.School operationsThe resort school works this frontage daily 08:30-17:30 between 30 October and 9 April, teaching from a boat so instructors stay with students instead of running the beach, and moving lessons to Sal Rei Bay when the swell shuts the hotel beach down.Launch pointPick your launch point deliberately: the beach is long, the NE trade arrives from the right and slightly from behind, and there is no downwind safety net once you leave the resort section.

Hazards riders report 9 reported

Wind

Side-shore to side-offshore NE trade wind with drift risk toward more exposed coast/open ocean.

Waves and currents

surf zone roughly 300m offshore
Open Atlantic waves, commonly 1-2.5 m and sometimes reported 1.5-3 m further out.
Shorebreak, especially in the December-February wave period.
Possible currents along the exposed beach.

Protected areas and rules

Shallow soft-bottom mangrove lagoon hazards if using the flat-water area; do not get stuck or damage sensitive habitat.
Southern Praia de Chaves sits within/next to the Morro de Areia protected area context; respect dunes, wildlife and turtle-nesting activity.

Other

Historically a landing point in the slave trade; the beach carries that weight locally.
Limited or no rescue away from resort/school areas.

Rules & access

1 min read

Protected area2003/2014: the southern part of the beach falls inside the Morro de Areia nature reserve. The protected-area network was created by Decreto-Lei nº 3/2003 and Morro de Areia received its own regulatory decree in 2014; the reserve runs along the coast from Praia de Chaves south to Praia de Santa Monica, covers about 2,131 ha of land and adds a 300 m-wide marine strip of roughly 4.36 km2 offshore, which means the water you ride in front of the southern sector is itself inside the protected area. Off-road excursions and sand extraction are named threats there, so keep vehicles off the dunes and stay on marked access tracks.Sea turtle protection2005/2018/2024: sea turtles are protected by law — possession, hunting and consumption were banned in 2005, a special criminal protection regime was approved in 2018, and a 2024 regulation governs turtle-watching excursions, which are guided and licensed only. Boa Vista is the archipelago's main nesting island and the nesting season runs June to mid-October, peaking in August, so night-time beach traffic, lights and dune driving on this coast are a legal problem, not just bad manners.Kite accessNo kitesurf-specific permit, launch zone, hours restriction or seasonal kite ban has been published by the municipality or the port authority. The practical constraint is the resort school: it works the Iberostar/VOI section of the beach from 30 October to 9 April, every day 08:30-17:30, so that stretch has lessons and a support boat moving through it during the day.

Access rules drift faster than anything else we hold — check locally, and propose an edit if this has changed.

Schools that ride here

Rider tips

Ask the school where it is teaching that day: lessons move from the Chaves/Iberostar frontage to Sal Rei Bay when the waves shut the hotel beach down. Call +238 599 27 37 or WhatsApp +351 929 183 100.
Do not assume the whole 5 km beach has rescue. The paid rescue boat is based at Praia do Estoril next to Sal Rei, roughly 10 km up the coast, and how far south it comes is unconfirmed.
Buy a rescue ticket before you launch if you are riding independently: 25 EUR for one pick-up against about 75 EUR billed if the boat comes for you without one, year for these prices unconfirmed.
For a first session here, ride with a local guide or arrive on a downwinder from Sal Rei/Praia Carlota rather than launching alone into side-off wind.
From December to February, check the swell harder than the wind. The shorebreak stops more sessions here than the trade does.
Stay off the dunes and off the sand at night on the southern half: the beach and a 300 m band of water in front of it sit inside a nature reserve, and turtles nest from June to mid-October.

Getting there

Airport

Aristides Pereira International Airport, Boa Vista (BVC)

Route

Praia de Chaves is by Rabil on Boa Vista's west coast, close to the airport and south of Sal Rei. Resort access is direct at VOI/Iberostar; otherwise use taxi, rental car or 4x4 from Sal Rei/Rabil, especially if aiming for a particular launch or lagoon access point.

Transfer

About 5-20 minutes depending on airport/resort/Sal Rei start point and whether travelling by coach, taxi or 4x4.

Cost level

Medium to high for beachfront resort stays; lower-cost/self-catering options are more commonly based in Sal Rei with a taxi/4x4 transfer or downwinder to Chaves.

Staying

On the beach it is resorts: VOI Praia de Chaves and the larger blocks around Praia de Chaves/Praia das Dunas. Sal Rei has the apartments and the town services, and it is where the other kite schools sit.

No-wind days

Morro de Areia and Chaves dunes, Viana Desert, Rabil pottery, turtle watching from June to mid-October, surf/SUP/diving, quad/4x4 island trips, Santa Monica, Varandinha and Sal Rei restaurants.

Photos

FAQ

When is the best time to kite Praia de Chaves?

The main kitesurf season runs November to May, with December to February the reported peak wave period.

Is Praia de Chaves suitable for beginners?

Only conditionally; some schools teach here with boat support near a mangrove lagoon, but the open beach has side-offshore wind and shorebreak, so beginners should confirm boat support first.

What is the wind like at Praia de Chaves?

NE to NNE trade winds blow cross-off to side-off, typically 15-25 knots in season.

Are there kite schools at Praia de Chaves?

Yes; Boavista Kite teaches at the Iberostar/VOI resort area, sometimes moving lessons to Sal Rei Bay when swell makes the beach unsuitable.

The bigger pictureEverything about Praia de Chaves - Boa Vista

Last updated: August 2026