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Water

Waves

Best season

Dec–May

Sal's quieter neighbour sits in the same winter trade-wind belt, averaging a good 5 Bft from December well into May with wind statistics almost identical to…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Nov–Apr

The Atlantic trade wind blows from November to April onto Kite Beach's choppy, open bay, while Ponta Preta on the west side is one of the world's best-known…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Nov–Jun

A small fishing village on the north coast of São Vicente, ten minutes from Mindelo, that has become a popular kite spot. The north-east trade wind blows from…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Nov–May

At São Pedro a gap between two mountains funnels the north-east trade wind onto the water about 2 Bft stronger than anywhere else in Cape Verde, 6–9 Bft or…

Water

Flat water

Best season

Feb–Nov

Resorts on the Gulf of Suez two hours' drive from Cairo, on the same stretch of coast as Egypt's big wind farms, which makes it the capital's weekend spot…

Water

Flat water

Best season

Mar–Oct

A laid-back Sinai town where a thermal wind funnels between desert mountains onto a shallow, sheltered lagoon with deep, flat water just outside. Cheaper and…

Water

Flat water

Best season

All year

A purpose-built resort town on the Red Sea with thermal wind on most days year-round, shallow flat lagoons for learning and open bump-and-jump water further…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Mar–Nov

A natural spit closes off Moses Bay on the west coast of Sinai and keeps the Red Sea swell out, leaving flat water in the bay with a gently shelving sandy beach…

Water

Flat water

Best season

All year

A 2 by 3 km sand-bottom lagoon among mangroves in the far south of the Egyptian Red Sea, possibly the largest standing area in the country, with knee to…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Mar–Oct

A freeride area straight off the beach south of Hurghada, with small wind chop running out into the open sea and, 700 m upwind, the Magawish sandbanks: at low…

Water

Flat water

Best season

All year

A huge lagoon in the far south of the Egyptian Red Sea, near Berenice, closed off by a 2 km house reef, so the water stays flat even with the side-offshore wind…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Mar–Nov

A 2 by 2 km hotel bay between Hurghada and Safaga with beginner, freeride and wave conditions side by side: inside the bay the buildings upwind make the…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

All year

A sandy bay 30 km south of Marsa Alam airport that works twelve months a year: as reliable as the far south of Egypt in winter and as windy as Hurghada in…

Water

Flat water

Best season

Mar–Nov

Kilometres of fine white sand on the Gulf of Suez two hours from Cairo, with a sandy bottom and no reef, both rare on the Red Sea. A 1 km sandbank upwind…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Mar–Nov

A wide beach in front of the Shams hotels south of Hurghada, standing depth for 80–120 m depending on the tide, with pieces of coral underfoot, so shoes are a…

Water

Flat water

Best season

Mar–May · Sep–Nov

Nabq Bay north of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the Gulf of Aqaba meets the Red Sea. The northerly blows side- to slightly onshore on about nine days in ten at 15–25…

Water

Flat water

Best season

All year

A peninsula south of Hurghada with a large, shallow, standing-depth lagoon and wind on most days, worked by a few large centres. The water is warm and the…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Jan–Feb · Jul–Aug

A straight, reef-fringed beach 1.5 hours south of Mombasa with two seasons: the Kaskazi from mid-December to mid-March, side to side-onshore from the left, and…

Water

Flat water

Best season

Jun–Aug · Dec–Jan

A Swahili island in northern Kenya where miles of empty beach run south from Shela village. A huge sandbar stretches out for kilometres, giving excellent flat…

Water

Flat water

Best season

Jun–Sep · Dec–Mar

A wide white-sand beach north of Mombasa facing a large area of flat, shallow turquoise water enclosed by a reef 2 km offshore, which has epic waves outside…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Jan–Mar · Jul–Sep

A 7 km bay north of Mombasa that runs from the Tiny Beach at Temple Point over Small Beach to Long Beach, with a sandy bottom and rounded rocks that show near…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Jun–Oct

Fishing villages near Toliara on Madagascar's south-west coast, where a long barrier reef encloses flat lagoons and the southerly trade wind blows from June to…

Water

Flat water

Best season

Apr–Nov

A remote bay on Madagascar's northern tip where the Varatraza trade wind blows nearly every day from April to November, 20–30 knots, over a flat, shallow…

Water

Flat water

Best season

Jun–Oct

A huge lagoon at the northern tip of Mauritius with almost two kilometres of side-shore riding on flat water in the south-east trade wind, typically 5–6…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

May–Oct

A multi-spot on the south coast of Mauritius in front of the Heritage resorts, east of Le Morne: a standing area and a freeride strip inside the reef, a gentle…

Water

Flat water

Best season

Jun–Oct

A big crescent beach lined with hotels on Mauritius' east coast, facing a wide shallow lagoon with flat to choppy water. The south-east trade wind blows side…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

May–Nov

A huge turquoise lagoon under the Le Morne mountain, with steady south-east trade winds in the southern winter, and world-class reef breaks (One Eye, Manawa) on…

Water

Flat water

Best season

Jun–Oct

Probably Mauritius' biggest lagoon, on the south-east coast by the airport, with a wide beach of fine white sand. The water is flat in the south and gets…

Water

Flat water

Best season

Jun–Oct

A remote island 600 km east of Mauritius whose giant lagoon at Mourouk gives flat to very flat water, with some reforming waves further out. The south-east…

Water

Chop

Best season

May–Sep

Morocco's big beach resort on a 6 km bay, and the surf village of Taghazout just north. A gusty north-westerly thermal of 3–5 Beaufort picks up mainly in the…

Water

Waves

Best season

Sep–Jun

A 15 km Atlantic beach between the Oum Er-Rbia river mouth at Azemmour and El Jadida, an hour south of Casablanca. North-westerly frontal winds bring excellent…

Water

Flat water

Best season

All year

A 40 km lagoon on the Atlantic coast of the Sahara with wind almost every day of the year and flat, shallow, warm water at spots like the Speed Spot and the…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Apr–Sep

The Alizé trade wind blows strong and steady onto a wide town beach, with chop inside the bay and proper waves at the north end and at Moulay Bouzerktoun up the…

Water

Waves

Best season

Apr–Oct

A fishing village 25–30 km north of Essaouira whose beach is one of the world's great windsurf wave spots, with the north-east trade wind blowing side-shore…

Water

Flat water

Best season

May–Sep

A calm tidal lagoon on Morocco's Atlantic coast between El Jadida and Safi, famous for its oysters. At high tide it offers excellent flat water over big shallow…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

May–Sep

A small village with a couple of kilometres of wide, soft-sand beach 25 km south of Essaouira, impossible to crowd. The northerly trade wind, boosted by…

Water

Flat water

Best season

Oct–Mar

A reservoir near Worcester, about 110 km from Cape Town, where the mountains squeeze the afternoon wind into a flat-water freestyle spot. When the South-Easter…

Water

Waves

Best season

Nov–Mar

The south-easter, nicknamed the Cape Doctor, blows 25–40 knots on many summer days along the Table Bay beaches, with cold Atlantic water and waves, and Table…

Water

Waves

Best season

Aug–Feb

South Africa's warm-water city on the Indian Ocean. The north-easterly blows side-onshore most of the year, strongest from August to December, over average…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Oct–Mar

A 1 km sandy beach at the Nahoon river mouth in East London. From October to March easterlies and north-easterlies blow on two or three days a week, 22–28 knots…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Oct–Mar

Port Elizabeth, one of South Africa's windiest cities, on Algoa Bay. In summer the wind blows 12–20 knots at least three to five times a week and regularly…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Oct–Mar

The famous surf town on the Eastern Cape, where the Kabeljous lagoon just north of town gives long stretches of flat water and the sea has medium waves for…

Water

Flat water

Best season

Oct–Mar

A long, shallow lagoon an hour north of Cape Town with warmer, flatter water than the city beaches and the same summer south-easter, typically 20–30 knots…

Water

Flat water

Best season

Jun–Oct · Dec–Mar

A reef-protected lagoon on Zanzibar's east coast with two windy seasons: the north-east Kaskazi from December to March at 14–20 knots and the stronger…

Water

Flat water

Best season

Jul–Sep · Dec–Feb

The north and north-east coast of Zanzibar. At Ras Nungwi the water inside the reef is crystal clear and smooth, with waves on the reef, and there is no seaweed…

Water

Flat water

Best season

Apr–Oct

Behind the hotel zone in the south-east of the island a spit cuts off a lagoon of roughly 5 by 8 km, about 40 km² of standing-depth, glassy water with a soft…

Water

Chop

Best season

Mar–Sep

The resort coast of Yasmine Hammamet on the Gulf of Hammamet, with a long sandy beach, flat to choppy water and a thermal sea breeze from spring through summer…