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Falklands

Kitesurfing

Phil & SI, West Pond—Christmas Day 2013

Should I bring my Kitesurfing Kit?

In the Falklands summer YES, in the winter that rather depends on how tough you are! This Guide is written based our on experience from Oct 2013 – Mar 2014 (Falkland Islands summer) I hope it is useful.

Weather

The Falklands sits on a similar Latitude to the UK but does not benefit from the Gulf Stream. Seasonal Daylight is very similar to the UK, with light until 2230 in December. Average monthly temperatures range from around 9 °C in January and February (Summer) to around 2 °C in June and July (Winter). With a maximum of 24°C in the summer and -5°C in the winter. Rainfall is generally a little less than the UK.

The Prevailing Wind in the Falkland Islands is Westerly varying between SW and NW. The average wind speed is 16knts. There is almost no seasonal variation in wind direction, which is less than 17 knots for 60 %of the time, from 22 to 33 knots for 20–25% of the time, and 34 and above 8–12% of the time.

Rigging an 8m at Bertha’s in 6m weather!

What Kit should I bring?

Kites/Board:

1. Most of your Falklands Kitesurfing is likely to be done on one of the local ponds near MPC all of which are relatively shallow (more on this later), so a smaller Twin Tip Board with short fins is ideal. You will get most use out of your UK high wind kite (in my case an 8m), but a 12m will also get regular use. If you have space consider bringing an additional smaller kite if you have one as we were regularly overpowered on an 8m.

Kit:

2. A carabineer and webbing strop for attaching to a picket post, each of the ponds has a post or in the case of Gull Island Pond two big tires tied to-gether which can be used as a ground anchor for launching and landing on your own. We have used the back of our Land Rover at Bertha’s Beach. It is definitely worth brushing up on your self launching / landing technique before coming here as it can be-come quite emotional without an assistant!

3. Spares and repair kit, I broke a pump and had to wait for a new one to arrive in the post. Phil tore a strut with damage to the bladder but success-fully fabricated a very strong repair out of kite repair tape. There is nowhere locally to buy any spares…

4 Nice to have: Wind Meter (for bragging rights). Flask? (to keep warm) Helmet? Go Pro? (more bragging rights)

Bertha’s Bay Inlet in no wind

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Location Guide

A- Berthas Beach Inlet.

B- West Pond

C- Gull Island Pond

D- Macho Pond

Berthas Beach (A)

If the wind ever swung round to an Easterly Berthas Beach would be a fantastic Kitesurfing location, a white sandy beach plus Gentoo penguins and Comerson’s Dolphins to keep you company. However the wind has stayed firmly from the west ever since I have been here so I have had to make do with the inlet behind the beach.

The inlet is also a great place to kite, infact the best place to kite near MPC however a little more difficult to get to than the other lo-cations. If using an MT vehicle you will need to raise a Bimble Chit, and sign the gate key out of 12 FAC reception.

With 50knts of wind the chop is no bigger than a meter. The water is shallow enough to stand in (for ap-proximately 200 meters at high tide) and very clear. An immediate depth change is very apparent as the water darkens. – It’s a large play area at high tide and the wind is as clean as anywhere on the is-land. The wind is invariably a little gusty since it has to cross land at all locations in this guide, but it is always cleaner here than anywhere else. We rigged next to the vehicle at ‘P’ and launched on the beach at ‘A’ on the map.

West Pond (B)

An exposed location so the wind is clean in most directions. There is a nice grassy area to rig and launch / land on. At its deepest (in spring) the water is not much deeper than knee deep all the way across, most if the pond has a hard bottom but there are areas of soft mud and some weeds. West Pond is great place to kite when the water is deep enough. Howev-er during the summer it starts to dry out and becomes too shallow to use.

Gull Island Pond (C)

Significantly deeper than the other Ponds, at around chest / head deep in the middle which is why the sailing club use it. However the knoll that the sailing club sits on creates a wind shadow and there is some turbulence from the road which is a little higher than the lake. This is less of a problem if the Westerly wind has a lot of North in it. Also it can be a long walk back if you have problems. Park near the sailing club pontoon, step over the low fence and rig on the tussock grass near the big tires.

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Phil gets some air at

Macho Pond

Macho Pond (D)

Macho Pond is a little more critical of wind direction than West Pond, working best in a pure westerly. Macho is however deeper than West Pond so although shallow you can kite it all summer. There is no good rigging or launching area since it is surrounded by tussock grass, though there is a picket post next to ‘D’ and when the pond starts to dry out a small beach appears along the shore by ‘D’, just enough to rig a kite and lines on without risking your ankles in the tussock grass.

The Canash

The Canash (E)

The Canash is included as a wildcard. This is Rob the local kitesurfer’s home spot near Stanley, however it is marked as potentially mined on the maps so military are not permitted to kite here. If you are a civilian, this is the best spot near Stanley to kite until they clear the mines from Yorke Bay!

Si checks his fins!

Phil (Toeside Switch) Nicholson

Si (Camera Whore) Cookman Chris (8m weather) Jones

Rigging at West Pond

Gentoo Penguin!