Hi folks, I am tempted to go to Aitutaki, Cook Islands around July this year. This is my second season kitesurfing, I'm ready to do some exploring and this place looks exciting.
What I am concerned about is the wind. Looking at the wind recordings at around this time it seems that the wind only gets to around 14 knots. With me sitting at around 85kg, and my kite a - a North Rebel 12m, riding a twin tip. I am comfortable at 18 to 20 knots and and find it work to maintain speed at 16 and probably will sink at 14.
On ground knowledge is a good thing. What has been the experience of those who have been there ? are the winds stronger that than the charts suggest - or have you/ would you prefer a kite a couple of sqm larger ?
Sage advice on this and other suggestions appreciated.
i am not claiming expert status but my experience was wind comes in cycles some weeks aaaalll on ! some not so much (just enough to ride), friend said lat year was very windy though.. 9 11 14? something like that.. ?
Born 1962, been there 3 years running and in general the winds follow a trade wind cycle, 5 days on 2 days off. As the cycle starts the winds are around 12-15 and they can peak at 20-25 mid cycle before decreasing towards the end of the cycle.
First year there i kited 8 out of 10 days and used my 10mtr, 12mtr and the 14mtr. Second year it was the same. Last year i thought i would take a 16mtr and be super lit on those lighter days. Turned out that for the 23 days that I i was there I used my 12mtr once and the 10mtr every other day bar one, would have been better off taking a 8mtr.
Its like any other weather based sports, there is a better than average chance that you will get good wind that time of the year but there are still spells were the weather doesn't play by the rules, just like snow sports, it docent always snow.
Are you planning to go on your own or with a tour?
I was there the previous year and had seven days of great snorkeling weather. The wind stopped and started before and after I left, I will go for two weeks next time.
I was there a couple of years ago and had a whale of a time, only used my 12M Switchblade..
The video is from honeymoon island aitutaki, cook islands
Yep, it tends to go in cycles
you may find the Cook Islands Met service wind graphs useful...http://www.kiteboardaitutaki.com/aitutaki-wind-weather.htm
for the record, since 2008 we've had just about everything; softest trip 3 days of kiting, best all 10 days on a 9m!
Thanks guys, that video is a compelling one. The wind story from deanrobi and hardcarve1 matches what I thought. I suppose it is just as hard to identify a good week in the future here in Melbourne.
It seems from the kiteboardaitutaki.com web site that July is a good time to head over with prevailing winds in the south east and a good proportion sitting 17-21 through to over 22 knots. - interesting how it contradicts the data on wunderground (www.wunderground.com/history/station/91831/2013/7/4/DailyHistory.html) . On the 1-7 the winds were sitting at around 20km/h E which is around 10 knots, 8-11 dropped to 10km/h, picked up 12th,13 to 43km/h EnE the rest of the month pretty much sitting just below 20km/h. Mind you I do not know where the weather readings were taken from.
Looks like I'll have to save up for a 15 or 17m kite to add to the 10,12m in my quiver.
I'll probably go on my own, unless the packages are keen on their prices, happy to have some like minded buddies come along.
Every photo i've seen from Aitutaki kite trips seemed like either no wind or very little wind...
Personally, if i'm going to take time off work, pay for flights/accommodation, and drag my gear across miles of ocean, I want to be guaranteed 20+kts every single day.
The mere fact that the Cook Islands Metservice wind roses we have on our site are different to the Wunderground history kinda tells you that historical patterns and year on year data can be rather variable...last year is a case in point
Cook Island met comes from the airport data and you can see a live version at http://www.airraro.com/clientpages/raro/aitutaki_weather.html
This is the data the airline relies on for daily ops.
Note that this weather station is on the terminal roof, 200m back from the shore and in a very different location to the sailing spots; though its a good rule of thumb that if its blowing at the airport it'll be blowing on the Maina sandbar!
In going there since 2008 I can say from experience that sometimes its great, blows like stink when statistically it shouldn't and sometimes its flaky; that's the fact.
If you want a wind guarantee or high odds its a tough call anywhere; though we did go to the Cocos in 2010 and it blew and blew and blew; never had reliability like that anywhere before.....and it seems last year was pretty good too.
This year costs are up; Cook Islands increased their VAT for a start, but packages are still pretty good value as they have the power of group purchase for boat shuttles etc.
Have fun whatever you choose!
Select to expand quotebreakzmaker said...
Every photo i've seen from Aitutaki kite trips seemed like either no wind or very little wind...
Personally, if i'm going to take time off work, pay for flights/accommodation, and drag my gear across miles of ocean, I want to be guaranteed 20+kts every single day.
Photos can be deceptive though- the lagoon is so sheltered and shallow its often still buttery flat even when it's 25 knots+
I went there in November 2013 and had better wind than July 2013 - kite able 6/7 with 2 days of 9m - it is variable though and some weeks there is very little - when I came back from the 2012 trip I went and bought a zephyr !!
