Kiting in the Palm Beach area

ATOMIK · #1 10-12-2011, 07:26 PM

Hi everyone,

I have a question about kiting in the Palm Beach area. I am aware of the few ocean spots designated for kiting in SFL. What are the possibilities if you have a boat? Any intercoastal areas for west winds? Where do you guys kite in west winds?

Thanks, Amy

ricki · #2 10-12-2011, 07:43 PM

Hi Amy,

For west winds I usually go to Sebastian Inlet Park to launch and ride off the west side of the island in the north or Biscayne Bay and the Keys to the south. The Intracoastal is fairly wide up that way in Sebastian. It is more narrow at points south increase wind turbulence. I recall Jupiter Kiteboarding teaches on inland waters on sand bars. The only place that comes to mind is pretty narrow, likely with uneven winds due to land induced turbulence. The more turbulence usually means less fun and more work. It can even be hazardous at times. There is an area I thought about checking out but never bothered further south. If you have a boat you might scout the area to look for likely sand bars for launching. This would be about a mile north of Blue Heron Blvd. in NPB. The ICW is about a mile wide there. If you could do boat launch anchored in the shallows or better yet find a likely sand bar close to the eastern side you might have a fairly close west wind riding area accessible only by boat. Some have kited in Lake Hypoluxo around Lantana. There are some sand bars, almost no easy shoreside launching without police hassles so again this might be a possible west wind launch but with more turbulence than ICW areas further north.

ATOMIK · #3 10-13-2011, 10:05 AM

Thanks for the info Rick!

ricki · #4 10-13-2011, 10:44 AM

Sure thing, let us know how it goes. You're ok with kite launching and recovery procedures from a boat?

ATOMIK · #5 10-13-2011, 11:54 PM

Yeah, I'm good with that. I currently live in Cocoa Beach, but we might be relocating south. Possibly to WPB, but we wanted to make sure we could kite in all wind directions there. We saw this island in the intracoastal close to Singer Island that looked like it had possibilities if you had a boat to get there.

ricki · #6 10-14-2011, 06:00 AM

I saw the islands as well, one even has a nice sand beach. It is about in the middle of the ICW so the land turbulence may be less significant further to the east. I don't know about oysters so be careful about that sort of thing. Our ICW is a fraction as wide as what you are used to in Cocoa. Then again, Biscayne Bay and the Keys offer even larger sheltered areas.