Kitesurfing in Africa

Destinations

• Antsiranana & Northern Madagascar, Madagascar

  A thirty-square-kilometre emerald lagoon at Madagascar's northern tip, reached past Diego Suarez and almost nobody else.

• Cape Town & Blouberg, South Africa

  Table Mountain behind you and the South Atlantic in front, on the wind the locals call the Cape Doctor.

• Dakhla, Morocco

  A forty-five kilometre lagoon between the Sahara and the Atlantic, with wind on around 340 days a year.

• Diani Coast, Kenya

  Kenya's south coast: white sand behind a barrier reef, two monsoons a year, and the safari plains a short flight inland.

• El Gouna, Egypt

  A resort town of islands and lagoons on the Red Sea, built around the water, with thermal wind that arrives on schedule.

• Essaouira, Morocco

  A walled eighteenth-century port on the Atlantic, famous for wind long before kitesurfing, with three very different beaches within twenty minutes.

• Hamata & Wadi Lahami, Egypt

  A vast shallow lagoon in the Egyptian deep south, two and a half hours from the nearest airport and almost entirely empty.

• Langebaan, South Africa

  A shallow turquoise lagoon an hour and a half up the coast from Cape Town, and one of the best places anywhere to learn.

• Le Morne, Mauritius

  A UNESCO-listed basalt monolith, a turquoise lagoon held by reef, and Mauritius's finest hotels within minutes of the water.

• Nosy Be, Madagascar

  Madagascar's holiday island, with reliable south-east trades from April to November and rainforest, lemurs and diving alongside.

• Pemba & Murrebue, Mozambique

  Thirty kilometres of turquoise lagoon in northern Mozambique, where you will often be the only person on the water.

• Sal Island, Cape Verde

  A low, sun-bleached Atlantic island where the trade winds run all winter and the swell that made Ponta Preta famous arrives with them.

• Soma Bay & Safaga, Egypt

  A shallow Red Sea lagoon that consistently blows harder than its neighbours, with rescue boats a requirement rather than a courtesy.

• Watamu & Kilifi Coast, Kenya

  Kenya's quieter coast north of Mombasa, where the Kaskazi blows side-onshore over a reef lagoon from December to March.

• Zanzibar East Coast, Tanzania

  A reef-held lagoon on the Indian Ocean side of Zanzibar, where the tide empties the flats twice a day and two monsoons divide the year.