Tarifa kitesurf spot guide for Levante wind

Day 1 – Valdevaqueros

This beach is curved shaped so even on a Levante you’re not riding totally off shore. It’s still not great though and the wind was strong and gusty. Despite that there were quire a few kite, and wind surfers in the water. We paid €1 and parked at Club Mistral which seems to be the biggest centre in the area. You can park farther up the road for free if you’re happy to walk.

Club Mistral is a really nice place with restaurant, bar, music, rental, school… the works. I walked upwind a bit to avoid the jam closest to the centre, launched my 7m and went riding. The gusts made it pretty tough to do anything fancy but I could still enjoy some big jumps.

It’s cool to see that there are way more girls riding here compared to the UK. I’d say every 4th rider here was female compared to about every 10th around London where I usually ride.

Day 2 – Los Lances lagoon

Los Lances is the huge beach between Tarifa and Valdevaqueros. It’s off shore in Levante which makes it pretty much off-limits, but it also has a lagoon that we were told to check out. So first we drove down to the public parking and it’s a really nice big beach with a chill out cafe next to the parking. I’d love to try on a Poniente. No lagoon in sight though but I spotted some kites riding “on the beach” a few kilometres towards Tarifa so we got back into the car and drove towards it.

First we tried the camping site but they told us to keep driving a bit and we would find a public parking with access. We then found the Best centre and further down some farm road with restricted access. We chose the Best parking and reckoned we could walk down to the beach and find the lagoon. That was the wrong way we later found out. We ended up walking through a meadow, getting a mud bath for our legs and finally ending up a few hundred meters wrong.

After a short walk on the beach we finally reached the lagoon though. The lagoon is about 100×300 meters big, so not huge but there were only two kiters there so still plenty of space for me to get in and enjoy the butter flat water fun. I had heard that there are plenty of skilled riders in Tarifa so I wasn’t surprised when these 2 riders were throwing down some serious moves, but I didn’t expect it to be Liam Whaley’s kite I landed, shortly followed by Marc Jacobs.

It’s pretty cool to meet the guys you see in the vids and photos all the time but judged from my Boracay experience this is not too rare since there are only so many great spots where the pros (and everyone else) go for good wind. I went out on my 9m for a very quick sesh only to realise that it was super gusty and you need to be a pro to handle those conditions so I came in to the shore where some police officers were waiting to tell me that I wasn’t allowed to ride in the lagoon. Ok. Good to know. Everybody still seems to be doing it. We walked up to the road, which turned out to be the restricted road at the farm house and went to Pachamama for some great BBQ to end the day.

Day 3 – Palmones

Palmones is located shortly after passing Algeciras towards Gibraltar and Malaga. About 25 min drive from Tarifa. It’s a small village with a nice beach with flat water and a view at Gibraltar and big cargo ships waiting to enter the port. People come here on strong Levante days when it’s too hairy around Tarifa. It’s a fairly small beach and a lot of schools and beginners so one have to be careful going out and coming in.

It was borderline this day and I barely got out on my 11m but this would be a great freestyle spot with a bit more wind. In the evening we drove to Valdevaqueors to check the conditions. It was around 35 – 40 knots and people were out on 5m kites. I felt a bit too lazy to rig the kite so instead we had some crazy action with the trainer kite.

Day 4 – Los Canos de Meca

About 45 min drive from Tarifa you find Los Canos de Meca, close to Barbate. It’s great on strong Levante days as the wind is considerably weaker here. We arrived around noon and got in when it was just about enough for my 11m. The wind then gradually picked up until 6pm and gave us a great, sunny day in the water with cross on-shore winds.

This spot has some small, nice rolling waves and at least half of the 20 kiters in the water were on surfboards making the most of the spot. Not great for freestyle due to the waves and some chop but you’ll still have a good time on a twin tip.

Day 5 – No wind day

It does happen that Tarifa sees more or less windless days. Even on this day, there were still enough wind to go out on big kites, but since 11m is my biggest we spent most of the day chilling in the sun and I only tried a short session in the afternoon but without any luck.

Day 6 – Valdevaqueros

Perfect 11m wind. Around 18 knots and hardly any gust at all. It was good to see that Levante can deliver other than super strong and gusty wind around Tarifa.

Day 7 – Punta Paloma

Punta Paloma is actually the same beach as Valdevaqueros, just a different access point a kilometre or so downwind. A lot of schools teach here so it gets quite busy close to the beach but other than that it’s very similar to riding around Club Mistral. Asia took a lesson with a guy from Kite Stick and I had 3 good hours in the water, well powered on my 11m. I came in exhausted but happy after improving my powered rolls and front roll transitions.

Day 8 – Punta Paloma / Valdevaqueros

Up and down wind on our last day in Tarifa. I was out on 2 short sessions on my 11m and had quite a bit of fun while Asia was body dragging on her 2nd day of her introduction to kitesurfing.