Mauritius???

I've never been to Mauritius, but my wife and I are going in the 3rd week in August this year, for one week, on the way home from a 2 week trip to southern Africa. We are staying at the Lux Le Morne. It rated well on Trip Advisor. I'm keen to do some bump and jump in the lagoon and some wave sailing if the conditions are suitable. I'm also interested in any feedback from sailors who have been to Mauritius.

Look into the Mauritius Freeride Challenge, this an annual event around that time of year.
Last year a heap of Aussies went over & we had a great time, even though we had a couple of kiters with us
Don't expect Maui wind though, it was pretty light most of the time while we were there, 8.5M.
The locals and hotel organised a lot of stuff to do when the wind was too light and night time, the hotel had free snorkeling trips for the kids etc.

Warning! Warning! Wall of Text!

St Regis is on the other side of where you want to be. I don't think the Ion club at St Regis has much equipment. RIU Creole has the centre right on its grounds. It used to be called the Indian Resort and it had a nasty reputation for food poisoning outbreaks, but a few years ago it was bought out by RIU who have fixed it up.

You will need a wetsuit, especially on the days when it's very windy and overcast. Booties too - heaps of coral and people who snorkel there told me that there is a lot of nasty stuff on the seabed (lie on your side when water starting, your feet will thank you for it). The club also has wetsuits, booties and harnesses that you can borrow. The sun is surprisingly strong. They do have showers in August, but they run through the place quickly.

People do come there with their own gear and just leave it rigged up on the hotel grounds. The hotel management frowns upon this, but they don't seem to be stopping anyone. (And now I know why I saw so much Goya gear..)

The club has mainly wave, freestyle and free move boards - all Fanatic. (I think they had one lonely Hawk, maybe this year they will have Blasts). 95-105L Fanatic Freewaves are really popular. In general you should book your board 3 months ahead of the peak seasons (July-October). It's your board, that no-one else will use. You can still use other "common stock" based on availability. My booked board was a Franatic Freewave 86 (13 days) and a Stubby 88 (10 days) - since I booked only 6 weeks before, it was hard to book the Freewave for the whole duration. When it was lighter I would use bigger Freewaves, Skates, Geckos. When it was nuking I was on a Freewave 76.

Sails - North Heros and Volts. 6.9 Volt is the biggest. They hang rigged on masts, but without booms and they quickly put the boom on for you (I don't know why they don't keep the booms on). Masts are RDM 75 % (I think). Booms - aluminium. Sails are first come, first served, so during peak times you may not get the 4.7 that everyone else wants.

In general the equipment is recent, but quite banged up. Even 1 year old boards have repairs - inevitable with the coral and the waves. If you hire from the club, get insurance as part of the hire package - you will break something. I blew out a sail in the waves, cracked the nose of a board when landing a jump (the place is tidal and can get quite shallow).

There is a small wave right in front of the club (Little Reef). Bigger waves further out and Manawa wave further out still. I never went to Manawa, but they only allow you to go there in groups wearing red jerseys and one person gets a radio. There is also One Eye, but they don't allow you to take club equipment there. A massive flat kite lagoon to the left. I ignored the lagoon until the last few days, when it got so massive (wind and tide) that the club manager asked the intermediates to stick to the lagoon. I think they don't like to have windsurfers there in general, and it may be too shallow most of the time anyway.
It seems like the place has waves all the time and wind most of the time. Mostly cross, sometimes cross-off and a bit gusty, sometimes cross-on. The wind tends to get stronger through the day. Even if there is little wind, you can take a Windsup and catch waves right in front of the club. It was surprisingly a lot of fun, but an experienced wave sailor told me that he was there the year before pottering about on a Windsup right in front of the club and the mast base snapped when the board overturned (the Windsups don't have a mast track, and this combined with the wide board puts a lot of stress on the mast base) and the current took him way out before bringing him back in (lucky, usually the current just takes you out).

tldr; The currents there are strong. The place can be downright dangerous. At high tide the current can be 12 knots. You can get sucked out in a matter of minutes. And then the next stop is Australia... the long way. The tropical conditions and no shore break lull people into a false sense of security. The club manager told me that they have not lost anyone in recent years and nowadays it's mainly swimmers and spear fishermen that get sucked out. While they do look out for you, at peak times it can be total mayhem with 150 people on the water. To me it seemed like you have to rely on others to relay to the club that you're in trouble... So sail with others.
Having said that, I was surprised to see so many complete beginners in the lagoon, so it can't be that dangerous. This guy is one of the club instructors and has some interesting ideas.
www.windsurf.co.uk/windsurfing-childs-play/
He's a windsurf/surf/sup/kite waterman, but wants to make windsurfing more popular again by starting kids in the sport earlier. It was pretty amazing to see him gybe, tack, catch waves with a little kid on the board standing next to him.

tldr2; you can go there with your own gear (the club even patches up other people's boards for about 50-100 euros), but it's 200 euros per rescue if you don't go through the club. Some people complain and don't want to pay or haggle afterwards ("I only have 100!"), so they impound your board until you pay up. Your other rescue options are the fishermen (about $50) and the coast guard (last resort). On my second last day we had showers coming through and the wind just dropped from 30 knots to nothing - even the kites fell out of the sky. Because it was very high tide, the wind being unpredictable, the club manager closed the club at 1:30 instead of the usual 4:30. He said that with the current being so strong, he may not be able to rescue us if we're stuck out there with no wind unable to waterstart. 1 hour after he shut the club and parked and locked the boat, the wind came back and then some. The independents all rushed out for a sail on their 4.2s. I asked him who will rescue them if things go wrong - "the coastguard".
The club advises that if you come there on your own, at least get some advice from them about the conditions and take a phone with you when sailing.

All in all, it's an amazing place and I would definitely go there again.

Thanks for the replies guys, I really appreciate it.

Does anyone sail in the lagoon (Kite Beach) or is that a general no go zone for windsurfers?

Does anyone from Aus have any experience dealing with Planet Windsurf holidays in the UK? They've been really helpfull thus fas and have given some great prices on an all in deal at the St Regis / Riu Creole / Lux.

Cheers

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SWPK said..
Thanks for the replies guys, I really appreciate it.

Does anyone sail in the lagoon (Kite Beach) or is that a general no go zone for windsurfers?

Does anyone from Aus have any experience dealing with Planet Windsurf holidays in the UK? They've been really helpfull thus fas and have given some great prices on an all in deal at the St Regis / Riu Creole / Lux.

Cheers

I have seen windsurfers around in the lagoon. If the wind is strong they take the beginners around there to learn. As my wife was doing some beginner lessons I briefly sailed around but it looked very shallow in places. I think there is a lot of sharp coral there so booties would probably be a must if sailing in there regularly.

I have booked with Plant Windsurf years back when used to live in UK. From Perth I have been booking accommodation and kit hire through Sportif (another UK based company) as cheaper than direct and Planet windsurf. I even found Sportif offered cheaper kit hire as the package than direct with the Club Ion centre. I had a quote from Planet Windsurf last year for the St Regis as they had a 50% discount but it was still over double what I could have the RIU Le Morne for and as I said earlier the location of the RIU is at the centre.