Kitesurfing & Windsurfing

Windsurfing has been popular around Floripa for years, while kitesurfing is growing fast and is overtaking its elder brother in terms of participants. Whichever of these two dynamic sports you choose to do, Floripa is the perfect place for both novices and experienced boarders.

For first time kite-surfers, Lagoa da Conceição has schools around the edge that run courses of a few hours to a few days. The open spaces of the lagoon are no barrier to winds in any direction, and sand banks just below the surface ensure that boats pass through the deeper channels only, leaving plenty of room for board, strings and kites.

The water stays shallow for quite some distance into the middle of the lagoon which removes any initial fear factor from being out of your depth. Waist deep water is ideal for practicing with the kite alone at first, until you have enough confidence to strap on the board and take off. From that moment on, the only thing that you have to worry about with this addictive sport is the effect on your relationship. Kitesurfing is gaining a reputation as being responsible for more relationship break-ups than map-reading. It isn’t the fastest growing watersport in the world for nothing.

Experienced kitesurfers and windsurfers can either bring their own equipment or hire it at the local schools. As well as the lagoa, the whole eastern side of the island has ideal conditions for kitesurfing, with southerly winds taking boarders from Morro das Pedras all along Campeche and up to Praia da Joaquina, a good 10km ride.

A run around the headlands to Praia Mole from Joaquina is also possible, and from there passing Praia da Galheta to Barra da Lagoa, but only for those who really know how to work a kite. Occasionally from the eastern beaches of Florianopolis and others on the mainland such as Praia Ibiraquera you can spot somebody clinging on to a colourful kite halfway to Namibia. Ilha do Campeche is also used as a large marker point to round during Kitesurfing Championship events.

Perhaps the most surprising place to see kitesurfing is the dunes at the back of Praia da Joaquina. After the kind of sub-tropical rain that Floripa occasionally has (but nobody tells the tourists), the hollows between the dunes fill with water and can be surfed and with a little luck, perhaps a jump from one to another over the dunes is possible.

Good luck trying.