Kiteboarding
A Kiteboarders Paradise
Esencia is a kiteboarders paradise due to the ocean conditions
here. It’s an especially easy and safe environment to learn
kiting.
Gentle and Safe
1. Shallow sea
You can stand up and walk a long ways out. If you get tired or
lose your board you can simply stand up and walk to it. Trying
to learn kiting in deep water adds a whole level of unnecessary
difficulty. Also here there are no strong currents.
2. Warm waters
It’s great to be able to spend hours in the water without getting
cold. And that’s without a wetsuit. The Caribbean sea is generally
warm anyways, and the Caicos Bank the we are on, being
a shallow sea, heats up even more.
3. Safe
Esencia is a safe location for learning to kite. The sandy beach
has no rocks or large projecting sharp objects. The side/on
shore winds will always bring you back to the beach. The
shallow waters mean you can always stand up if you get tired
or lose your board. The beach is 3+ miles of white sand and
buildings are set back about 100ft or so, so even if you crash
your kite on the beach there are no dangerous objects to entangle
with (cars, buildings, etc.)
Ease of Use
In addition to the natural environment, we have added some
‘ease of use’ facilities to the beach to make the kiting experience
more pleasurable
4. Kite Pump/Compressed air
As lazy aging kiters we’ve installed compressed air directly on
the beach with fittings for most kites. Takes the back strain out
of kiting and makes for a quick inflation. Simply plug in the
hose to your kite, turn the valve and… done!
5. Self-launch and Landing
We have two self-launch/landing pads, one directly on the
beach and one in the water. To launch your kite you run your
lines and attach the chicken loop to the launch. Then you walk
to your kite and place it in the launch position in the wind window. The kite will simply sit in that position. You then walk
back to the launch, hook the chicken loop to your harness,
disconnect from the launch and then bring the kite up in the
air. See short video here.
Landing is exactly the reverse. With the kite directly overhead,
hook your chicken loop to the launch. Then lower the
kite down to the beach. The kite will simply sit there at the
end of your lines. Disconnect from the kite, walk over to it
and place it down on the beach. Then return to the launch and
disconnect the lines.
6. Extra gear
We have large light wind and beginner boards here if you
need them. Though we’d all like to be on a short performance
board, having a big board for learning makes a great difference
to ease of learning. And when the wind is light, even the
advanced kiters use the bigger boards – at least you’re out
on the water, and you’d be surprised what kinds of tricks you
can do riding a Door.
7. Advanced Kiting
Provo offers two types of waters for advanced kiting.
Long Bay is generally flat water with some chop depending
upon wind conditions. Many advanced kiters come here for
work on tricks.
Grace Bay (depending upon wind conditions) has a reef
leading to the open sea. The reef offers wave riding, and the
conditions on Grace Bay are generally wilder, larger swells,
waves and then open ocean. |