Riding in shallow waters – Kitesurfing in Vietnam
One of the goals of many kiters is riding in flat shallow water. As this will facilitate you to practice new tricks.
Third week of August, already back home after a day of kitesurfing in Sa Marina, Pollensa bay, and, suddenly, comes to my mind those days of kitesurfing in Vietnam – Vung Tau
Why will it be? … it will be because of the burden to share the spot with so many kiters crossing your path? Will it be for our mini poseidonic -seagrass- Mallorca’s beach? … will it be in any case because of the lack of waves to play with?
Or … will it really be all of it altogether?
In short, it is what it is. Kitesurfing is a gift from the wind in any case, so you have to be grateful that the wind has blown, because our bay is considered a protected natural space and because nobody wants to throw us away from there.
Kitesurf in Vietnam – Vung Tau
Even so, and taking advantage of the fact that memory has taken me back to the super kite beach of Vung Tau, I have started writing this lines and I will even decorate them with some photos
… and … with the windity of the area, which although it reflects, for those who understand wind directions, that now, summer, it is not the best time of the year for kitesurfing there, since the wind comes from the other side, that is, offshore winds … you know that you have to wait until September until April to enjoy kitesurfing in paradise.
Wishing I was back there and enjoying the big free space, the so many days of 20 knots and the so many waves to surf them or use them as a takeoff ramp and also to play run and catch with this waves sometimes …
Kitesurfing in shallow water
Actually, I am not exactly a flat shallow water freak, although sometimes it is not bad a kite session in flat water. Always considering that the tide goes down quite fast, which most certainly will put the bottom and the fins of your kiteboard on risk, due to the insufficient depth of water.
Our shallow water kitespot at low tide
I like kitesurfing in waves
Not the waves that break on the shore, those that serve for you to surf – with the support of the kite – but whose objective is not that the kite drags you once you are riding the wave, but that you ride the wave as if the kite wasn’t there, that is, only using the kite pull when you need it.
No, those waves do not interest me . No, what I prefer is that type of beach in which there is little gradual depth, or the opposite of a step beach which can create an ugly and unfriendly shore break.
I mean this long broad beaches in which the waves break at lines, some on the outside, some a little later and so on, offering you at least 5 to 7 breaking lines of waves.
That creates different sizes of wave, so when you enter, you jump them before they start breaking, or if you prefer, when the wave forms a ramp before you or even running parallel the wave while the wave comes to you and you run in front of it not allowing the wave to break on you and catch you
And when you go back to the beach, surfing or enjoying the ride between waves. This sort of flat water highway between waves which gives you the chance to use this flat water to try a good jump … In any case, all this variations I find more adrenalinic than just flat shallow water …
But if you are a beginner or you just want flat water where to throw manoeuvres, at the end of our beach, we can chose to ride past the sand bank and face small ramps or get to the central part of the river and behind the sand banks at medium and low tide you’ll find shallow water.
In short, there is plenty of riding options where to choose, if you want waves, you stay on the beach in front of the city. You can do it near the sanctuary island at the beginning of Bai Sau beach.
You can do it in front of the flags square. You can do it in front of the Russian bar, and also beyond, where some Vietnamese have their meeting point, along with some catamarans that some of Ho Chi Minh visitors use at the weekends.
And even further, where a couple of Vietnamese kiters chose to ride. The last point where you can see a kitesurfer on the left of the beach – and that is that, as we are few kiters there, we all know each other … and already, even further down the beach, in front of the last hotels, where the city finish and the golf course begins.
And from there it should be left still a good 8 kilometers of beach where to kitesurf, with practically no one anywhere, except some occasional fishermen with their curious round boats.
And then, you come to the big last curve to the left of the beach, at the end of it and there you have the river, and from there, all the shallow water at low tide.
A link regarding another earlier upload to the blog where I talk about the area and its things
http://www.edmkpollensa.com/en/kitesurfing-vietnam/
Over the sand bank, near the shore, break small waves, which are by no means a nuisance, but quite the opposite because I use this ramps as a platform for taking off my jumps or to play and surf them
And … the shallow water part of the beach, which is just behind the sandbanks that are already in the middle of the river, halfway between the beach and Long Hai
To get there you have to calculate several rides upwind, which can take you 15 minutes, depending on where you want to go up wind and at what height is the tide, since at low tide, the banks are larger and that creates even flatter water behind them, being hidden by the sand.
And all that without the slightest trace of posidonia – there they have not even heard about our “beloved” poseidonic prairies.
Riding in flat water – Kitesurfing in Vietnam / Vung Tau
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