Spots

Water

Flat water

Best season

Jun–Oct

An archipelago in the Gulf of St Lawrence with steady winds, shallow lagoons, cliffs and endless beaches, Canada's hidden gem for kite and wing. The bay of…

Water

Flat water

Best season

May–Sep

A summer thermal funnels up Howe Sound between mountains and hits the Squamish Spit at 15–30 knots most afternoons from May to September, over flat to lightly…

Water

Chop

Best season

Feb–Jun

A small fishing village on the north coast of the Yucatán inside a large nature reserve, next to the pink lagoon of Las Coloradas and its flamingos. From…

Water

Flat water

Best season

Nov–May

A huge, hip-deep saltwater lagoon in a nature reserve 25 minutes north of Cancún that works on any wind direction, with the ocean side as an alternative when…

Water

Chop

Best season

Nov–Mar

A winter thermal, El Norte, blows most afternoons from November to March at 15–25 knots onto a long, sandy bay on the Sea of Cortez, with wind swell for…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Oct–Mar

A village on the Sea of Cortez between La Paz and Los Cabos with a huge sandy beach, where the El Norte thermal builds early in the morning and keeps blowing…

Water

Waves

Best season

Mar–Oct

A remote fishing point on the Pacific coast of Baja, 275 miles south of the border and reached only by dirt road, that windsurfers discovered in the early 1980s…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Mar–Jun · Sep–Nov

A 50-mile barrier island with the Atlantic on one side and the shallow Pamlico Sound on the other, so there is a launch for every wind direction and…

Water

Chop

Best season

Mar–Aug

The windiest place in the continental United States and famous for its consistency: from March to August a thermal southerly to south-easterly arrives in the…

Water

Chop

Best season

Apr–Sep

Riding under the Golden Gate Bridge in a strong, gusty summer sea breeze, cold water, big chop and powerful tidal currents that can push you out to sea. It is…

Water

Chop

Best season

Jun–Sep

Hot desert to the east and a cool coast to the west drive a strong, reliable summer thermal through the Gorge, with wind over 20 knots on around 190 days a…

Water

Flat water

Best season

Oct–Apr

The chain of islands at the end of the Florida Keys is surrounded by ocean on every side and has some of the best flat-water riding in the United States, with…

Water

Waves

Best season

Apr–Sep

The 15 km run from Maliko Gulch to Kanaha is the world's best-known downwind course, where foil downwinding was pioneered: strong summer trades line up…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Mar–Oct

The north-shore trade winds at Kanaha Beach Park and neighbouring Kite Beach made Maui the birthplace of modern kiting and a wing-foil hub, with a who's who of…

Water

Chop

Best season

Nov–Apr

Miami's beaches fill with sunbathers and carry strict rules, so the riding happens a short drive away: Crandon Park on Key Biscayne is the most popular spot, a…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Apr–Oct

Kailua Bay on the green windward side of Oahu, the spiritual home of kiteboarding and of names like Naish and Cabrinha, is a white-sand, turquoise bay that…

Water

Flat water

A large, calm saltwater bay in San Diego where schools teach wing foiling off Fiesta Island and from the aquatic centre. The sheltered water suits first lessons…

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Mar–Jul · Oct–Dec

The longest barrier island in the world, on the Gulf coast of Texas near the Mexican border, with flat water on the bay side and waves on the ocean side like a…

Water

Flat water

Florida's Gulf Coast around St. Petersburg has become one of the busiest places in the south-east US to learn wing foiling. Schools use the shallow bay water…

Aruba

Water

Flat water

Best season

May–Sep

Trade winds blow year-round and are strongest from May to September, arriving offshore at Fisherman's Huts on the north-west coast to give flat, shallow…

Barbados · Christ Church

Water

Waves

Best season

Dec–Jul

The riding on Barbados happens on the south coast around Christ Church, and the southern tip at Silver Sands and Silver Point is the best known spot, with the…

Bonaire

Water

Flat water

Best season

Dec–Aug

Constant north-east trade winds of 15–25 knots over Lac Bay's wide, shallow, glassy lagoon, plus Atlantis Beach on the south-west tip for kiters. Warm water…

Costa Rica · Guanacaste

Water

Chop

Best season

Nov–May

A horseshoe bay on Costa Rica's far north-west Pacific coast near the Nicaraguan border and the country's premier spot, with around 300 wind days a year: the…

Dominican Republic · Puerto Plata

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Dec–Aug

An afternoon trade wind fills in most days, light in the morning and 15–25 knots by early afternoon, over a bay with flat water inside the reef and waves on it…

Guadeloupe · Grande-Terre

Water

Flat water

The south coast of Grande-Terre, from Saint-François to Sainte-Anne and Le Gosier, has warm, reef-sheltered water and steady trade winds. Several schools teach…

Honduras · Bay Islands

Water

Flat water

Best season

Feb–Jul

On this Bay Island off Honduras the Caribbean trade wind blows most reliably from February to the end of July, averaging about 20 knots, picking up around…

Martinique · Le Vauclin

Water

Flat water

Best season

Dec–Jun

The best spot on Martinique, on the south-east coast at Le Vauclin, is a huge lagoon where you can stand over a good part of the water, with a flat, sandy…

Panama · Panamá Oeste

Water

Flat water

Best season

Dec–Apr

A peninsula on Panama's Pacific coast in the same trade wind belt as Venezuela and the ABC islands, with steady 15–25 knots almost daily from late December to…

Puerto Rico · San Juan

Water

Chop

Best season

Nov–Jun

The big bay and wide beach of Isla Verde next to San Juan is Puerto Rico's best spot, with side-shore wind that suits every level, choppy water in winter and…

Saint Lucia · Vieux Fort

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Dec–Jun

Three main spots share the island: one at Cas en Bas in the north and two near the international airport at Vieux Fort in the south, with big winds, white sandy…

Saint Martin · Saint-Martin

Water

Flat and waves

Best season

Jun–Sep · Nov–Mar

Galion Bay on the French, eastern side of the island sits in a protected nature reserve where no motorboats or jet skis are allowed, and is voted one of its…

St Vincent and the Grenadines · Grenadines

Water

Flat water

Best season

Dec–Jun

A small Grenadines island with a flat, shallow lagoon in front of Clifton and the Tobago Cays marine park a short boat ride away. The winter trades are…

Trinidad and Tobago · Tobago

Water

Flat water

Best season

Nov–Jun

A lagoon of about 2.5 by 1.3 km behind the reefs at Pigeon Point, one of the Caribbean's postcard beaches: standing depth for the first 20–30 m, then water so…

Turks and Caicos Islands · Providenciales

Water

Flat water

Best season

Nov–Aug

Miles of knee-deep, glass-flat, turquoise water with a steady side-onshore trade wind, which is why it appears on so many best-spot lists. Upmarket and quiet…