Kiting in Fiji

If you don't have experience in waves, Fiji is not the place to learn...full stop. As far as kiting, depends where you are, if you are sailing at some point you will be at Musket cove marina at Malolo island. There is a sandbar about 2 miles in front, everyone knows it, just asked. Only works low/mid tide, is offshore so boat support is a good help. About 10 miles away you have many surf breaks, again, not for beginners. Wilkes, Namoto left, Swimming pools, Tav right, restaurants, and cloud break. All shallow sharp reef breaks, some impossible at low tide, or strong currents.

In the Blue lagoon in the Yasawa group, you can kite a few places, again watch for coral and the tides. No waves up there during this season.

Beqa island does get the trades, issue is the launch....not at lot of space anywhere the wind works. Start practicing boat launches... If you get across to Yanuca island, better chance, but again not great. There is a sand/shell/coral spot island a mile off Yanuca, looked possible if someone helped with your kite, and someone sorted your lines out of the coral in the beach....sorry, no super flat lagoons there. Head back to main island for any decent chance of kiting.
If your up for it, get a boat out the Frigates Left, boat launch and charge that wave.....watch the wide ones, they empty onto a rock shelf.
While Beqa bay might not have the best kiting, it does have some of the best diving in Fiji, and Frigates rocks....it's just a long boat ride anywhere though...And when the winds up, you cop a pounding in the longboats....take waterproof bags unless you dont mind getting soaked.

Thanks for the tips, I've got a few more places to check out.

Has anyone been to Nananu-I-Ra Island or Safari Lodge? I know the place and owner has generated a lot of controversy. What I'm curious about is the kiting around there. It looks like they give lessons (which would be good for my beginner friend) so there must be some decent, safe kiting around.

spartacus. you will have a ball.

why not tell us about your trip when you get back.

Thanks for the info Cabron. Malolo island looks like a short trip from Nadi, totally doable - we'll check that out. I'd like to get to the Yasawa group as well, it looks like there are some good spots there and cool places to visit. Taneuni Island sounds fantastic, but is pretty far - not sure we'll make it out there.

I'll steer clear of the big waves and reef breaks. Ideally looking for beautiful flat water!

From what I've read the trades blow 15-20 knots. Is that your experience? What size kites do people use there mostly?

Hey Gnar

PM me if you would like some info on Kiting FIJI. We do give Lessons and operate boats for Support to look after you. Accommodation options range from Dorm, to Private to Beachfront.

Beachfront Location, hot Water Showers, 3G Wi-Fi, Unlimited Boat support - dedicated Boatmen to look after you....sure you can go elsewhere and fend for yourself and make it work somewhat...but not really a kiting holiday without a Repair facility, spare parts and professionals looking after you.

thanks

Warren

Hi Guys
I'm also heading to Fiji, but only mid Oct. Going to Mana Island. Is it still worth taking my gear. What sort of wind strength can I expect.
Cheers

Hi Guys,

I recently went on the Zephyr Kite Tours Fiji trip and brought the family along. Here's my feedback, its a bit of a ramble but hopefully someone finds it useful:

Me
Kiting 13 years? Pretty much only kite in the waves these days and not nearly as much as I used to before kids and I'm definitely a surfer before a kiter. I typically prefer cross-off conditions to cross on. The kids are 2 and 3 at the moment.

We were looking for a family holiday where I could get some surfing or kiting done because apparently the "sadness in my eyes" is to much to bear if I am couped up for too long. We had been to Bali a bunch of times before having kids (but never kited there) and thought we would try Fiji as an alternative.This was the first tour they had run there so they are still sorting out a few of the details, so I believe some of the details wont apply to newer tours but I thought I would include it for anyone considering Fiji by themselves.

Kiting
was mostly done out at Namotu and Cloudbreak. The private nature of the Islands means that boat launch and pick ups are the go unless you are lucky enough to have organised access (which we got one day only) or the tide is low enough to launch off one of the tiny "sandbars" around. Personally I didn't find launch from the boat too big a deal, however where it was an issue for me was the one big day when we launched at cloudbreak and there wasn't enough wind (there was a second day, but unfortunately for me that fell on a family day :-(). Without enough wind to tack back up to the boat you are really at the mercy of the crew and in this instance we pretty much wasted 3 hours on an underpowered downwinder whilst cloudbreak was 8-10ft and building and Restaurants was 3ft and building to 4-6ft. Pretty torturous (especially knowing the next day was off limits!). Certainly not a problem however when there was enough wind.

Cloudbreak is fairly cross-off and I really liked it, but I am goofy and happy to ride in straps. Unfortunately we only got to kite it once on a small day at 2-4ft and not really lining up perfectly, but you could definitely feel the potential. The day we got it there were still people trying to surf it despite it being 20-25kts (and why wouldn't you if you are paying a fortune to stay at Tavaru or Namotu). Bottom line is that they weren't getting any waves but sitting in the best section - to the point where I decided to give up and go for a surf instead. Maybe on a bigger day you might get less surfers or if it was lining up right from the top of the reef it wouldn't be such an issue? But I got the feeling that you would always be contending with surfers one way or another.

We spent much more time at Namotu Lefts and got it everywhere from 2 ft to inconsistent 5-6ft. Personally I didn't really rate this wave, it was pretty fat and sectiony and hard to generate speed from the wave definitely not suited to the boards I brought (6'1" Rocket Fish and 2 x 6'4" standard performance shortboards). In retrospect I would have bought a short wide thick board had I known what it was going to be like for surfing and kiting it. For me it definitely got better when it was bigger, and also when the wind swung a little bit more offshore but the whole time I was just thinking about how good CB would have been. I did get one great wave here on the big day after down-winding from CB but unfortunately couldn't tack back up for a second crack at it. Probably a good thing because it was too light to safely kite it (for me atleast). Don't be afraid to take something short and wide if your intending on spending much time surfing or kiting this wave.

Here is 9 minutes of every wave I caught at CB till the GoPro batteries ran out if youre interested in seeing what its like (youtube's sensored the music so turn the sound off):

We kited up at Sigatoka river mouth one day which was ok, but nothing different from your standard beach break here. One of the other days I spent with the family everyone else went and kited a lagoon near a village which looked like a bit of fun too (but a few people came back with reef cuts etc).

The kite guide (Phil McFarlane) was awesome, and I wouldn't hesitate recommending going on a trip with him to anyone. I saw him on many occasions go out of his way to help people and even drop his own kite to help relaunch others etc. I think you really need someone like this otherwise the boat logistics etc could potentially be a nightmare.

Accomodation
I don't think Zephyr are using this resort anymore so this feedback probably doesn't apply to their tour. Definitely still valid if you are considering staying at Sonasali.

Sonasali was generally pretty average, some of our personal experiences were:
- no hot water for the last 3 days, and no desire to compensate us for this at all when settling the bill!
- Kids club - we couldn't take the kids ourselves but had to hire a nanny. Our kids didnt take too kindly to that so that was pretty much out.
- Booked snorkelling for one of the off days and got left on the dock for 40 minutes before finally being told the boat was broken but only after we questioned WTF was going on.
- Got a few over charges (eg snorkelling) removed the day before we left, only to have to go through the whole process again on the last day when paying.
- Food was so hit an miss, the first night we paid F$170 for dinner for the family and the food was just ****house really. However about day 7 I braved another steak and it was pretty good, and on the same night Amy said her salmon was as good as you would expect in sydney.
- Sometimes orders (pool or room service) would take ages (1-1.5 hours), and in a couple of instances we had to gently remind them we were still waiting.

We picked the Zephyr option over BWS kite week because we didn't want the kids couped up on the island the whole time, but they were basically couped up on Sonasali island anyway and went a bit stir crazy so we might as well have been couped up on a nice island instead - it would have also allowed me to have some quicker sessions or bail quickly if it wasn't that good. The F$50 return trip into town didn't really make it worth while just to go in for a look or to pass the time, and in reality there wasnt much to do in there anyway.

If we were to go to Fiji again I would be tempted to try Tavarua - should be big enough for the kids. I also think it would greatly ease the logistics associated with kiting there. Trying to please the family and the kiter doesn't make it easy, and if anyone has any alternatives I'd love to hear about them. The days we kited I would have been gone for 3/4 of the day which made it hard for my wife and definitely meant I had (should?) take every 3rd day off. The logistics associated with kiting Fiji from the mainland is that you don't really know what the waves and wind will be like till you get out there.

If you were trying to do it without a tour it would get very expensive. Surfers were indicating $150 - $200 a day for a spot on boat. Pretty sucky if you get out there and its flat etc. I think your chances of trying to organise a kiting trip out there for the day a probably pretty slim unless you have 4-6 guys and can book out your own boat.

Fiji in general was far more expensive than Bali, and it kind of put a damper on beers by the pool etc, dinner etc (especially when the quality was that good). At Sonasali beers were F$10 and Cocktails were F$22. Everything in Fiji seemed expensive, despite the locals not getting paid much - you get the feeling that someone is making lots of money.

Hey Plummet. I went to Fiji this time two years ago. We spent a week at Soniasali and then on Mana island. We kited off Mana in two different wind directions, one day with light winds in the butter flat aqua blue lagoon near the dock and the other day north of the island in choppy open water 25 knots+. I tried to kite out to the edge of the fringing reef (maybe 1km?) but there were hectic bombies everywhere. I couldn't find a way through. The north side had about 30m of ridiculous shallow water and sharp coral to navigate in your booties in med-low tide. So while it's nice, you wouldn't go to Mana island for the kiting (there were also no launch/land spots really). It seemed very family friendly though and the accom was nice. Our group used Fiji Surf Co (Ian Muller) to charter a boat to take us out to Namotu and cloud break so i'm not sure how much it would cost one person; they do have accom at mana + a surf shuttle each day for about F$110 pp so it would be significantly less than $150-200.

We had cracking kiting day after day at namotu and cloud break. I can see that it would suck hard if the wind wasn't enough though, like anytime it's big anywhere. Namotu left was more down-the-line than cloud break, which was semi-offshore, but that was fun (knowing you had a boat that could come get you if need arose). We went unstrapped mostly but wore leggies.

I've heard mixed reports about Fiji mostly because the wind is not always reliable but i had a blast.