The beauty of the sea in this area makes downwinds a particulary enjoyable experience, we do encourage visiting kitesurfers to make use of this option. Or to explore yourself, the flat water makes it fairly easy to kite upwind or downwind without the assitance of a boat. Just ask the local kiters for advice before.
Three downwinds or kite-excursions are offered in Buen Hombre: Downwind from Cayo Arena, downwind to Playa Popa and the kite excursion to the seven islands, Cayo Siete Hermanos.
The two kiteschools in Buen Hombre arrange downwinds regularly. You can also talk to any of the local fishermen and they will be happy to take you up to Cayo Arena or pick you up in Playa Popa after your downwind if you prefer to go without a group.
Downwind from Cayo Arena
Cayo Arena is a small, yet famous, sandbar. It sits in the middle of the sea between Buen Hombre and Punta Rucia or La Enseñada, one of the Dominican Republics most beautiful beaches.
This downwind starts with a boat-trip from the beach in front of the schools. Kites and boards are loaded aboard and we head along the huge mangrove forest upwind across turqouise blue flat water. The boat captains like to show the tourists the old channels local fishermen still use to navegate their small boats trough the mangroves. Finally the boat arrives to the sand bar where kites will be inflated. Kiters can enjoy the crystal clear water with view to the corals around the sandbar before the group either crosses over to continue to downwind along the mangroves back down to Buen Hombre. Another options is to follow the reef downwind for a while with the option to play in the waves. Behind the reef there are huge area of the flattest water around. Take your time and enjoy this special treat!
Cayo Arena is a large tourist attraction. There are days when it will be full of Dominican Tourists arriving in boats from Punta Rucia. If its too crowded the second launch option is to put the boat in a shallow area in one of the bays in the mangroves. The kites will be inflated and launched from the boat while the kiter stands on the sandy bottom.
Make a safe approach to Buen Hombre
Make sure you understand how the approach to Buen Hombre is made safe. You need to keep distance from the hill where the bay of Buen Hombre starts. It has a large shallow water area in front with breaking waves. Its not safe to kilte close to it unless you know it well and control your kite and board well. Secondly you need to “go around” the reef and its most shallow area and approach the main kite-spot “from behind” to avoid crossing the most shallow area where you might hit rocks or corals. The waves will break in front of the shallow area. Make sure your instructor or safety-rider explain this to you before you depart so you can see these obstacles / dangers from the boat as you head upwind.
Also keep in mind that after you launch your kite and go downwind, there is no beach access before you are quite close to Buen Hombre. The coastline is completely covered in mangrove forest.
Turtles can be spotted here regularly and with some luck you might also see large rays and manatees in this area.
Downwind to Playa Popa
For this downwind we launch from the regular kitespot in Buen Hombre. The first part of the downwind runs parallell along the long beaches and the rock (la piedrea) that you can see from the main spot. There are a few places where its possible to stop for a rest or a chat with your buddies. The flattest flat water around is found along these beaches a bit downwind from Buen Hombre.
You have the option to cross out a bit to play in the waves that form in front of the rock and out around the coral reef. The last part of this downwind is along the mangroove forrest that opens up as you approach the beach called Playa Popa. Here the water is murky and very choppy so enjoy your time downwind and dont waste it kiting at the beach it self.
The boat that follows kiters downwind will wait at Playa Popa and take the kiters on a rather bumpy ride upwind back to Buen Hombre.
Tourist from MonteCristi use this beach so there are a few simple restaurants here and you can rent tents if you wish to spend the night here.
Kite-excursion to Cayo Siete Hermanos, Seven Islands
This could be one of the most amazing kite-excursions you will ever do. So prepare and enjoy:
These tiny islands are on the border between Haiti and Dominican Republic. Famous pirates like Francis Drake used these waters and the tiny islands as a base of operations to conduct raids and plunder Spanish ships laden with treasure as they sailed from Latin America to Spain loaded with silver, gold and precious stones.
Cayo Ratas, has a large flat water area, many kites enjoy this spot the most as they kite the blue water here.
Cayo Muerto provide both a lagoon with a flat water area, cross over to the other side upwind and you should feel the wind is stronger.
The islands are located a bit off the coast from the city of Montecristi. So this downwind usually start on the dock of the marina close to its large mountain rock, El Morro. Kites and boards are loaded aboard and kiters will setup on one of the “larger” islands and launch from there. Then we cross from one island to another where both the seastate and wind can vary a lot.
CrazyFly kiteboarding did a product video on these islands, take a look to see what can be expected. They did go outside of the main season for Buen Hombre so the CrazyFly crew did not get the best wind.
Planning a trip, curious or just a friend?