In the beginning of December Triin was visiting some friends in Dubai, UAE. Even though it wasn’t a kiting holiday, she had a chance to try out kiting on Dubai’s kite beach. She’ll share her first-hand experience…
I have visited my friends in Dubai a couple of times, but never have had the chance to go kiting there. But this time I decided to check it out, if the weather allows it. Dubai is not known for good winds, but you still can find some wind from December to February.
It was my last day in Dubai, when the wind was promising. As kite beach is a drive away from Dubai Marina, where we lived, we called the kiteschool in the morning to check if I could rent some gear. It was my first time to rent gear for kiting as usually we have taken our own gear along. As my friends don’t kite, they had no clue, where the kiteschool could be. Kite beach is one of the longest public beach areas in Dubai, therefore popular not only among kiters, but locals as well.
We found the school quite quickly, it resembled an old American school bus. Unfortunately it turned out that they had all their rental gear on another beach that day as the so-called official kite beach was overcrowded with sunbathers. The other beach was 2,5km away – the Ness Nass beach. As my baby had just fallen asleep in the stroller there was no other option than to start walking…
The Ness Nass beach was also quite crowded that day. There were lots of people on water, even more just waiting on the beach with their kites high up. I have never understood why people wait for hours (literally the same people with their kites up after my 1h session!) with their kites up. Isn’t it easier to land and relax and then relaunch once the wind picks up?
Anyway, tried to find a guy who would lend me the gear. I was prepared, had my IKO app ready to present my level, etc. But no one cared – they only asked if I consider myself a good kiter and when I answered I have the IKO Assistant Instructor level, they said OK. So much about the background check….I could have been anyone…
So at the end they struggled to find a kite for me and the so-called instructor over there lent me his own kite and board. They also found a harness, unfortunately only a seat harness in the suitable size, which was quite strange as the last time I wore a seat harness was back in 2009, when I took my beginners course.
To launch the kite, there was another instructor behind me just in case. When I took the bar up, I asked the instructor to show me how the depowering/powering works as there was a system I had never seen before – I had never kited with Cabrinha equipment before. The instructor, however, told me that there is no need for it as the wind is shitty and I should just launch. I was looking at her with a silly face and then she said that yellow is PROBABLY for depowering and black powering, but I should try it out myself. Ok, I know how to try it out myself, but I don’t think that this is the way one should rent the gear! Especially if they didn’t check my background at all.
When I got on the water I felt immediately that the kite is overpowered and tried to depower. Must say it is the hardest depowering/powering system I have used so far. It was really hard to pull the yellow for depowering and even harder to pull the black for powering. In the beginning it was quite tricky to get upwind as the bay area was quite small and no one was going out of the bay, only a few. Not sure if it was because of the wind and they couldn’t get upwind or there was another reason. There were also no beach rules, meaning no separate areas for beginners, freestyle, free ride etc. as in some beaches. Therefore you needed to juggle between total beginners, average kiters and jumping masters. In addition, there were some buoys I needed to avoid.
The water, however, was nice and warm. It gets deep quite instantly, so be prepared for that. The water was quite choppy that day and when going outside the bay area the waves got bit bigger.
After around 30 minutes on the water I was forced to come back to the bay area as the wind dropped. I was kiting quite slowly as there wasn’t enough power but I was still moving and resistant to get back on shore (secretly hoping that the wind will pick up again!). I was on starboard tack and saw that there was another kiter coming exactly towards me. I was slowing down and he lowered the kite, so I thought he was going downwind as supposed to. Then he instantly changed course and hit me, literally hit me. Thank god I was barely moving! Our lines crossed and kites fell in the water and the guy just started yelling at me. I told him that I was on starboard tack and I had the way according to the rules, but he continued to yell till we reached the shore. I was in shock, because I knew I had the way and it wasn’t my fault. Then my instructor (or the guy who lent his gear – who knows!) came, asked what happened and said that this guy doesn’t know how to ride at all, so I was quite lucky. He also told me to avoid people as there are many beginners who have no idea of the rules. I got back on water and finished my session a bit later when my rental time was up…
As a conclusion I must say that it is OK to ride in Dubai if you are a skilled rider. I wouldn’t want to start learning there because it’s so crowded and gets deep instantly. If I would be living in Dubai, for sure I would go kiting there and discover the beaches in other emirates. However, I would never plan a kitesurfing holiday there. One reason is that the beach itself is a bit far from the Dubai nicer areas (center, Marina, etc.), meaning you would be wasting time on transportation. Secondly, the kite beach area designated to kiters is so small and most of the time overcrowded (the only place I could have practiced jumping would have been far outside of the bay). Maybe there would be less traffic in the middle of the week, but as wind is not constant there, I believe that everyone wants to get on water on the windy days.
You can also check out a practical website about the kite beaches in Dubai here.
