Kiteboarding Brasil - Jericoacoara
15 January 2007 dans Kite Surfing Brazil
I just got back from 3 weeks in Prea, near Jericoacoara, NE Brasil. It was BY FAR the most fun and most epic riding (i.e., massive downwind action) I’ve ever experienced. Brazil is so much more than we expected, and we expected it to be spectacular. We have recovered from the initial shock/insult of being misinformed by Vela that the kiting in Jericoacora was excellent and easily accessed—-it is,in fact, banned in Jericoacora; the best kite beach nearby is in Prea, 12 km ($50 fare each way!) towards Fortaleza. Usually, when one plans a trip w/Vela, they make it totally easy for you to enter a completely foreign country and be safe, do the sport you came to do, etc. So, it is with great emphasis that I warn all kiters: Don’t use expect Vela to know what is up for kiters going to NE Brazil.
In Jericoacoara, the general populace make you feel like a leper for being a kiter vs a windesurfer! Holy snowboard vs. skier, Batman! It’s weird, a leap backwards in time. The motto of most windsurfers there seems to be: HOW DARE U FLY.
We moved our whole Brazillian fantasy to Vila Prea in the village of Prea and it has been dreamy since then……the beach is deserted, they take us on a FAT downwinder every day, they hover discreetly in the background and land the kite/launch the kite/squeeze your fresh guava & o.j. drink, get the most amazing masseuse/make world class fresh fresh fresh food (better than anywhere I’ve been, I swear) and generally spoil the bejesus out of us. I mean, in my dreams, I can’t fantasize the luxurious treatment we’ve been given. ALL for very reasonable prices, WAY less than what VELA charges for room/breakfasst/discrimination. I’m hella impressed.
Other than that, the people here are also….lovely. In every way. Happy, smiling, seemingly always in a good mood, helpful. I kept trying to tip the helper staff for, say, picking up all my kite gear from the room every morning, taking it to the beach, and then collecting it all up at the end of the day and returning it to the room. But NO. The helper folk semi-scolded me, like, we as upright Brazilian men feel odd not helping you kite-girls, so don’t offend us by plying us with cash. Whoa.
HOWEVER. Not all of Brazil is so lovely: Do not think it’s safe to fly into a major Brazilian city and wing it. Sao Paulo is drive-with-your-doors-locked, windows rolled up DANGEROUS. The best program is to suck up the expense (like, a couple hundred dollars) of having your hotel/driver pick you up at the Fortaleza airport and beat it to the kite location of your choice in NE Brazil.
Allegedly, you can fly directly from Miami to Fortaleza using American Airlines in concert with TAM, a Brazillian airline, but I have yet to locate this mystery flight. The most expeditious route seems to be SFO to MIA to Sau Paulo or Rio, then to Fortaleza. WHY this is a downer, multi-connections aside, is that you have to hit Brazilian customs once you get on Brazilian dirt. If you go MIA through Sao Paulo, you can look forward to a New Dehli style mad crush of humanity and hours of waiting to claim your luggage, load it up, schlep it through the airport to the TAM check in, re-check it in, and all that takes hours….in addition to well-being lost.
THE KITING IS TO DIE FOR. If you’re kiting near Jericoacora, i.e., Prea, none of us have needed anything bigger than a flat/bow 9m kite. I’ve only used my flat 7m flat kite the whole time. When we first got to Prea, it was so windy I was scared, like: Is it going to be survival kiting like this the whole time? Can I buy a 5m somewhere? Mark Doyle(Thanks for the good times, Amigo, see ya’ll when ya get back) lives here part of the time, and he came to visit us which was RICH, to say the least…… HE said something like, dang, it’s too windy here, I’m on a 5 every day, I don’t know if I can take it much longer. Whoa again.
After the initial shock of being sandblasted when stepping outdoors, one gets used to the small kite, and out comes the courage, and out come the tricks. It’s only sandblasting when it’s 40+, and we still went kiting on those day, albeit with trembling hands on the bar and hyper-vigilance.
The other thing is, I somehow thought we would have a chance to ride point-break style waves (i.e., like in Santa Cruz, or C-St. in Ventura; the kind of wave that is firm and peels forever). It is all shore break here, like Ocean Beach or Silverstrand in Oxnard.
Fred & Rob at VilaPrea hooked us up with our favorite righteous Brazilian champion motocross dude, Daniele, to do the epic downwinder from Taiba till we couldn’t kite anymore after days of downwinding. Literally. I had to come in on day 2 or 3, as in, I just cannot go on anymore. I forget in the blur of ecstacy from all the riding. Daniele has been on the NE coast for decades and knows everything: tides, best wave/wind combo spots, best posada to use,what’s dangerous/not, etc…..plus he’s hysterically funny.
Summary: If it’s your first time to Brazil, spend the money on having a babysitter, i.e. a KNOWLEDGABLE dependable outfit that will steer you around. I thought I could count on Vela for that, but they dropped the ball. If I had not stumbled on the good folks at Vila Prea, who totally stepped up and impressed us, it may have been a bad trip. BUT NO! It was epic.