Windsurfing and kitesurfing: the island's other wind

Why this island, specifically

Fuerteventura's tourist board describes the island as having a combination of wind and warm temperatures that makes it usable for wind sports at any time of year, across roughly 340 kilometres of coastline, with many windsurfing areas protected by law. That combination is the whole proposition: you are not booking a wind lottery, because on this island the wind is closer to a fixture.

That also means the wind is not a background condition you tolerate. It is the activity. If you grew up thinking of wind as the thing that ruins a surf session, this is the wrong frame to bring to a wind or kite trip.

How it differs from surfing

The skills transfer less than people expect. A windsurfer or kiter is managing a rig or a kite, a board and the wind at the same time, and much of the first days is spent on equipment handling rather than on waves. Kitesurfing in particular has a distinct risk profile: the kite carries real force, lines are hazardous, and the launch and landing area is the most dangerous place on the beach.

The upside is time to competence. With steady wind, someone who has never held a boom can usually be moving on a board within a course of a few days, in a way that a comparable few days of surfing rarely delivers.

North or south

The wind sports are split across the island, and the choice is mostly about the kind of holiday you want rather than about which is better. The northern resorts — Corralejo in particular — pair wind with town life, restaurants and easy access to the dunes. The southern side, around the Sotavento stretch and Costa Calma, is more purpose-built for wind sports, with larger centres and the flat-water conditions that suit freeride and speed work.

If you are travelling with people who do not sail, the north is usually the easier compromise. If the sport is the entire point of the trip, the south is the more obvious base. Our north or south guide covers the base decision in more detail.

What to check before you book a course

Ask what happens on a no-wind day. On this island it is a smaller risk than elsewhere, but it is not zero, and a school that has a clear answer is a school that has thought about it. Then ask about group size, whether equipment is included, whether insurance is included, what qualification the instructors hold, and whether instruction happens from a rescue boat or from the beach.

Our surf school checklist covers the comparison questions in detail; most of them transfer directly to wind and kite schools.

Safety, in the order it matters

For kitesurfing, the launch area comes first: never fly a kite over or near people, never launch or land in a crowd, and never let anyone hold your kite who has not been shown how. For windsurfing, the recurring problems are getting blown downwind away from your exit point and losing the rig in shorebreak.

Both sports share the same two rules. Take instruction from someone qualified, and stay within a distance you could swim back from. The general ocean hazards — rips, cold water, sun — apply here exactly as they do to surfing, and we cover them separately in surf safety.

Seasons for wind and kite

Wind sports are far less season-bound than surfing, which is the point the tourist board makes. That said, the island's weather still varies: summer brings the driest, sunniest and warmest conditions, and winter brings more cloud and rain, with December the wettest month at an average of 26 mm. Our season guide has the official monthly climate figures, which apply equally to a wind trip. Our when to visit guide adds how the wind differs between the coasts — the west is the windiest and the sheltered south the calmest.

What this site does not do

This is a non-commercial information project. It is not a school, a rental business or an agency, it does not take bookings, and it has no commercial relationship with any centre on the island. Nothing here should be read as a recommendation of a specific operator, and we publish no equipment or access details for specific spots.