Hawaii kite surfing

Depending on what direction the wind is blowing. The eastern shore has some awsome lagoons. On the north sore there is a spot called mokes next to the airfield that is pritty awsome.

Just got back from Maui and Ohau, as mentioned above Kailua is where you want to be on Oahu, flat water and reef break's further out, awesome paradise spot, bit of a drive.. 'heaps' windier on Maui though!

I just got back from my trip and only got in a bit of kiting due to lack of wind. For anyone following me over there, here's some more details on the information given above.

I stayed at the Hilton Village Beach resort, and was able to walk to the beach in front and kite from there on a couple of days.

On the first day, I walked to a little beach away from the main beach in front of the car park adjacent to the Hilton lagoon. The beach was just big enough to lay my lines out and another local kiter came in just in time to help me launch, but there were only three kiters out including me. I was told it rarely blows onto that beach. There was a shallow reef in front of the beach and you had to pick a line to avoid getting grounded on the rocks. Behind that, I found a small patch of azure blue water to play around on and had a nice little sail which concluded with a self landing into the water behind the break water. No drama!

The next session was just following a storm and the beach was cleared of people by the rain, so had the place to myself for a while. As I was kiting, I saw a storm passing by a reasonable distance away, and as it looked like a very powerful cell, I thought that some strong wind gusts might be coming my way. I decided to put safety first and head into the beach. I'd had a great session with some long fast runs in pretty flat water, some nice jumps and some awesome wave riding fun. I was the only kiter on the beach.I was seconds from my landing spot when this huge gust came my way, somehow turning my kite inside out (think it has a slow leak and was a little deflated) The result was a (briefly) out of control kite landing on the beach, me lying on my stomach on the sand, doing my best to get it landed and a few people experiencing near misses with the lines and kite. Yes, for a moment I was that idiot tourist messing it up for the locals!

I went over to Kailua bay for kiting a few times, but no wind except one day when it was blowing enough to be tempting. I found the kite launching spot and started chatting to a guy there who was Italian. He offered to lend me his 14m kite as I was telling him it was not enough for my 12. I accepted his offer and we got his kite out, and pumped it up. (He did not have a board as he hired one if the wind was to his liking.) Kite up and ready to get going, I tested the wind strength and it seemed enough to have a bit of a sail. I walked out until the water was around my neck, and put the kite above my head in preparation for putting the board on, and it simply over flew me, stalled and came floating down with slack lines. This caused a bit of chaos but do one was hurt. I thought perhaps a wind drop had caused it to happen, but was more cautious the second attempt trying to find a spot where the kite was a little powered so as not to stall, but not pulling me so hard as to make it impossible for me to put my board on.

Next minute, the kite did the same thing and came floating down, this time landing with the lines surrounding some people who were walking my way with their SUPS in the water. The guy whose kite it was rushed to grab it and I got out of the water.

Next minute, the life guard was there telling me it was not the day to be learning to kite surf as the beach was too busy. He also complained that I was outside the kiting zone, which, by that time I was... by about 3 meters... Then a local lady came up and said she was a local kiter and they were one incident away from having the beach closed to kiters. I sincerely hope I was not that incident!!!

I was that idiot tourist again!! I've never flown a kite that just randomly fell out of the sky, (it was a newish five line kite with very rectangular shape, but can't remember exactly what kite it was) but in hindsight, I should have body dragged out 100M before trying to get going. I did ask the owner if there was anything I should know about the kite before I flew it, but unfortunately he didn't mention the fact that this kite was specifically designed to replicate the disasters of the Hindenberg.

The lagoons were fun, the small waves of Waikiki are very much fun, the reefs are quite shallow and certainly something to watch out for. Booties are used by local riders as apparently reef cuts there often get infected and can lead to serious problems if not carefully looked after.Trade winds apparently happen pretty much every day there in their summer, so that's probably the best time to go, but apparently it's pretty busy with kiters and wind surfers. It's a surprisingly small place, taking only a few hours to drive around the Island - even though everyone drives super slowly. Honolulu is pretty busy and full of high rises and freeways, so if you're into nature, then best to stay in Kailua. if you want a little more information, then check out my Facebook page www.facebook.com/lee.brogden2 for pics from the trip (Starting Dec 25, 2014).I hope this helps someone. :)

Where......and when? Love Maui so would be keen to try something even better!