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Rawai Beach

Phuket Province · Rawai

also known as Chalong Bay, Friendship Beach

Part of Phuket →

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–Mar

Months riders and schools name

How windy

12-18 kt

Character: mixed

Room to launch

tight

access rules on record, below

Water

mixed

29.6 °C in summerChalong Bay and Rawai are flat to slightly choppy shallow water, not a wave spot

Hazards

Reported by riders

Level

Beginner to advanced

With a caveat: see Your level

BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced

Crowds

medium crowds · busy Nov Dec Jan Feb

Schools

named at this spot

From the airport

Phuket International Airport (HKT)

Transfer times under Getting there

When it fills in

Best wind tends to come in the morning through the NE monsoon and can go light in the afternoon. There is no instrumented onset time for the bay, and whether the morning bias is thermal at all is disputed.

Nearbystraight-line distance

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

Layan Beachno page yet
Kata Beachno page yet
Nai Harn Beachno page yet
Ao Sane Beachno page yet
Pullman Panwa / Cape Panwano page yet

The spot

Rawai is Phuket's winter side. The riding is not off the Rawai pier with its rows of longtails but around Chalong Bay and Friendship Beach, where the schools sit and the water is waist deep straight off the sand.

Season and wind

The season is the northeast monsoon, November to March, sold as far as April, with December to February the only stretch that carries real certainty. Wind is moderate: 12-18 kt on an average day, 15-25 kt when it is properly on, usually best in the morning and often lighter by the afternoon.

Water and riding conditions

The bay is flat to slightly choppy and stays shallow a long way out, which is why it teaches well and why it is a freeride, freestyle and wingfoil bay rather than a wave one.

Low tide and launch logistics

What nobody puts in the brochure is the low tide: the inside dries to mudflat with exposed rock, the boats sit down on the sand, and the rideable water moves offshore. The launch is small and backed by trees, so launching from the water is normal, and the bay is shared with working longtails and speedboats that have right of way in practice.

Skip it if you want power, and come if you want to learn or to ride flat water in shorts.

The wind

locals call it Northeast monsoon / easterly wind season

Direction

cross-on

Direction to shore

Side-onshore in the northeast monsoon, reading anywhere from onshore to side-shore depending on which access in Chalong Bay you launch from.

Dominant direction

E to NE in the kite season; W to WSW appears in off-season forecast pages and is not the main Rawai kite season direction.

Kite sizes

67891011121314151617

metres · typical quiver highlighted

The quiver, in words

8-12 m covers almost every rideable day. A 75-85 kg rider is on 11-12 m for the common 12-18 kt afternoons and drops to 8-9 m when a December-February day gets into the 20s; smaller than 8 m is rarely needed.

Character

mixed

When it fills in: see above ↑

Average strength

12-18 kt on a typical season day, with the better December-February days sitting in the 15-25 kt band. No long-run wind station covers the bay itself, so both figures are rider-reported rather than measured.

Typical strength

12-18 kt is the everyday average; 15-25 kt on the good November-March days, with December to February the only stretch that carries real certainty.

Moderate Phuket winter wind: rideable, but lighter and less certain than Thailand's strong Gulf-coast thermal spots. December-February is the narrowest and most dependable window, and outside it the rideable days thin out.

The kite season is the easterly northeast monsoon.

Beginner courses in Chalong Bay run November to March, the easterly window is sold as far as April, and December to February is the only stretch with dependable wind.

From April to October the emphasis shifts to downwinders, boat-radio lessons, SUP and safaris, and the island's kite scene moves to Nai Yang on the west coast for the southwest monsoon.

Forecast

Live forecast

Windguru Windfinder Windy

Month by month

riding season from the spot record · the wind series here holds no strength figure

No month-by-month share of windy days is held for this spot. The months riders and schools name are Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar, and whatever the series does hold is in the table below.

Measured at Talat Yai / Phuket, ~14 km from the spot (2009-2026 (partial/sparse; annual avg speed only 3 kt, likely low-quality/gap-filled record)).

Every figure, month by monthWind from · Air

Month	Wind from	Air
Jan	ENE	30 °C
Feb	ENE	31 °C
Mar	E	31 °C
Apr	W	31 °C
May	W	30 °C
Jun	W	30 °C
Jul	W	30 °C
Aug	W	29 °C
Sep	W	29 °C
Oct	W	29 °C
Nov	ENE	29 °C
Dec	NE	29 °C

How this was measuredmeasured · 2009-2026 (partial/sparse; annual avg speed only 3 kt, likely low-quality/gap-filled record)

What was recorded here is in the table above, but it holds no wind-strength figure for any month, so no season is drawn from it. The season is the one the spot record names.

A station this far away — often inland or at an airport — can understate accelerated local wind. The direction is a column of the table above, month by month. Highlighted months are the riding season from the spot record.

Talat Yai / Phuket · Windfinder · 2009-2026 (partial/sparse; annual avg speed only 3 kt, likely low-quality/gap-filled record)

The water

Type

mixed

Standing depth

Waist-deep water right outside the school at Friendship Beach, and it stays shallow a long way out - that is the whole reason the bay teaches. At low tide the inside dries to mudflat with exposed rock in places and the usable water moves offshore.

Tides

The range is real even though the spot is often called tide-independent: spring range reaches about 2.2 m, with highs around +1.0 to +1.1 m and lows around -0.8 to -1.1 m against mean sea level, referenced to the Ko Taphao Noi station 13 km away.At low water mudflats and rocks are exposed, boats sit on the sand, and the rideable water is out in the bay.

Temperature

29.6 °C summer · 28.7 °C winter

Wetsuit

No wetsuit normally needed; Rawai monthly sea temperatures stay roughly 28–30 °C, and boardshorts plus lycra/rash vest are sufficient.

Currents

No current measurement exists for the kite area. Chalong Bay is sheltered and current is not reported as a limiting factor; boat wake, moorings and anchored longtails are the moving hazards instead.

Conditions

Chalong Bay and Rawai are flat to slightly choppy shallow water, not a wave spot.

Rawai is a working longtail and seafood beach rather than a swimming beach, so expect boat activity and a functional beachfront instead of sunbeds.

The sea temperatures quoted are for Rawai Beach generally, not measured at the launch, and no current figure exists for the kite area.

Your level

BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced

Both kite centres in the bay run beginner courses, one of them in waist-deep water directly outside its door, and both handle downwinders and safaris for stronger riders. The value here is learning, freeride, freestyle and foiling on shallow flat-to-choppy water. Nobody comes to Rawai for surf or big air.

The scene

What riders come here for

freestyleflat waterfreeridewingfoil

Who it suitsbeginnerlessons

An established lesson and rental corner of Phuket's quieter southeast coast, with two kite centres and others nearby. Tourist high season is November-April, but the Rawai beachfront stays a working seafood and boat-trip beach rather than a Patong-style resort strip.

Launch and rules

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

With a school or a boat

3 schools name this spot

See who they are

On your own

Room to launch: tight

Read the access rules

Somewhere else

2 spots nearby

All 2 spots within 40 km are under Nearby

Rescue

No lifeguard and no municipal rescue covers Rawai or the Chalong Bay kite area. School boats are the only cover: radio lessons are run from a boat and downwinders are boat-escorted, but that support belongs to the lesson, not to the beach.

Independent riders should plan on self-rescue, and treat the constant longtail and speedboat traffic as both the main hazard and, in practice, the nearest help.

Launch

The working launch is the kite-school side of Chalong Bay at Friendship Beach, not the Rawai pier beach with its rows of longtails.KiteZone sits at 14/12 Soi Mittapap, Tambon Rawai, with waist-deep water directly outside; KBA's Rawai centre is at 16/26 Wiset Road.The launch area is small and backed by trees, so launching from the water is normal. Avoid the northern side of Chalong Bay, where the first 30 m out from the beach is solid rock.

Hazards riders report 12 reported

Wind

Wind is moderate and can go light mid-season, so being underpowered among boat traffic is its own risk.

Crowds and zones

boat traffic near Chalong pier and Rawai's boat-trip departure points
Boat traffic in Chalong Bay, including longtail boats, fishing vessels, tour boats and Rawai island-hop departures.
Rawai is not primarily a swimming beach and has significant boat activity, so expect non-kite marine traffic near the beach.
Longtail boats, speedboats and fishing vessels are constant: Rawai is a working boat beach and Chalong Bay is a departure point for island trips.
No lifeguard, and Rawai is not a swimming beach.

Waves and currents

shallow/rocky patches possible at low tide in a sheltered bay
Rocks and shallow areas at low tide.
At low tide the inside of the bay dries to mudflat with exposed rock, and the water you can ride moves offshore.
The first 30 m off the northern side of Chalong Bay is solid rock at any tide - stay off that side.

Other

Small launch area with trees close behind the sand.
Small launch area with trees close behind it.

Rules & access

1 min read

As of 2026 no Rawai Municipality, harbour or national-park rule specifically restricts kite launching at Rawai, Friendship Beach or in Chalong Bay, and nothing kite-specific is posted at the beach. Confirm with a local school on the day.
As of 2026 no municipal, harbour or national-park rule restricting kite launching at Rawai, Friendship Beach or in Chalong Bay was found, and nothing kite-specific is posted at the beach. Confirm with a local school on the day.
As of 2026 the bay is shared with commercial longtail and speedboat operations that have right of way in practice: keep out of the boat lanes off the pier and off the island-trip departure points.

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

Check the tide before you book a beginner lesson: at low water the inside of the bay is mudflat and rock, and the usable water moves out.
Do not assume the main Rawai pier beach is the rigging zone; check whether riders are on Friendship Beach in Chalong Bay that day.
Take a school or a local for your first launch. The launch is small, the trees are right behind it, and launching from the water is the norm.
Stay off the northern side of Chalong Bay, where the first 30 m out from the beach is solid rock.
Bring light-wind gear, or be ready to wing, e-foil or SUP. This is a moderate-wind bay, not a guaranteed one.
Between April and October the kite season has moved to Nai Yang on the west coast; Rawai runs downwinders, foil and SUP, and Nai Harn or Ao Sane fill a no-wind day.

Getting there

Airport

Phuket International Airport (HKT)

Route

Rawai is on Phuket's south-east coast, about 46 km by road from Phuket International Airport: roughly 50 minutes by taxi in light traffic, or about 2 h 10 min on the Phuket Smart Bus. The kite area is a further short hop around to Friendship Beach on the Chalong Bay side.

Transfer (minutes)

About 50 by taxi from Phuket airport in light traffic; about 130 by public Smart Bus (2026).

Cost level

medium

Staying

There is no shortage of rooms: more than 5,957 hotels were listed near Rawai in 2026, from guesthouses to resorts, and a Rawai kite-camp package with accommodation through Bob's Kite School appears when it is running.

No-wind days

SUP, wingfoil, e-foil, seafood restaurants at Rawai, longtail-boat trips to Ko Lon/Ko He/Ko Bon/Ko Racha, Big Buddha/Chalong viewpoint area, Nai Harn and Ao Sane beaches nearby.

Photos

FAQ

When is the best time to kite at Rawai?

The easterly wind season runs November to April, with several guides narrowing the most reliable window to December-February.

Is Rawai suitable for beginners?

Yes, KiteZone offers beginner courses in waist-deep water at Friendship Beach in Chalong Bay, alongside freeride, freestyle and foiling for more experienced riders.

What is the wind like?

Wind is moderate by global standards, commonly reported around 12-18 or 15-25 knots depending on source, with a morning thermal bias.

What are the main hazards?

Boat traffic in Chalong Bay, a small launch area with nearby trees, and rocks and shallow patches at low tide are the main hazards.

Are there kite schools nearby?

Yes, KBA Phuket Center and KiteZone Phuket both operate in the Rawai/Chalong Bay area, along with Bob's Kite School and Kiteflow.

The bigger pictureEverything about Phuket

Last updated: August 2026