On a breezy afternoon at the Fairhope Public Beach, the kite riders appear almost without warning, colorful arcs of fabric pulling boards and riders across the water of Mobile Bay. The Gulf Coast’s wind sports community has grown steadily in recent years, and it got a boost when Danial Ware, a team rider and ambassador for Cabrinha Kites, made a stop in Fairhope to let local enthusiasts test new equipment.
Cabrinha Kites, founded in Maui, Hawaii, is one of the world’s best-known makers of kitesurfing gear, and Ware arrived mid-tour, a month-long run from Miami to San Francisco with demo stops along the way to promote the brand’s kite sailing equipment and answer questions. Before reaching Fairhope, he had led a two-day weekend youth clinic on Pensacola Beach teaching kids aged 6 to 16 the basics of hydrofoiling and wing surfing.
Like Riding a Dirt Bike, on Water
Asked to describe the sport, Ware reached for a comparison from land: it is like riding a dirt bike, he said, you can go slow, or you can jump 15 buses. The range is the appeal. Kitesurfing and its younger cousin, wing surfing, let riders cruise at a manageable pace or push into soaring jumps, on the same stretch of water.
According to Ware, conditions along this stretch of coast are best from fall through late spring, and a local rider network keeps the community informed about when and where people are riding. As a veteran of the world’s dream wind-sport destinations, he was emphatic about the region’s quality. “I am constantly amazed at the quality of riding found around the Gulf Coast,” he said. “There are easily thirty-plus riding destinations just between Pensacola and Fairhope alone, with guaranteed friendly faces to meet and ride with.”
Lessons First
For newcomers, the entry point is not a purchase but a lesson. Kitesurfing and wing surfing are considered very safe sports with proper instruction, and most new riders need between two and five hours of instruction before they are proficient enough to ride alone. Lessons also matter for access: they teach new riders how to safely enter and exit the water, which is essential at shared public beaches like the Fairhope park where ordinary beachgoers are present. Keeping the launch safe is how the established community protects its riding access.
Along the central Gulf Coast, dedicated kiteboarding schools and shops now serve riders from Alabama, northwest Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana, with lesson sites that include Fort Morgan, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and Dauphin Island. Local riders in this region traditionally get their gear from two area dealers: Gulfport Board Sports in Gulfport, Mississippi, owned by Tommy Whitman, where Ware continued his demo tour, and XL Kites in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, owned by Michael Percy. Both shops offer instruction and equipment, and the tight-knit community speaks highly of both.
The Newfound Freedom Project
Cabrinha has also pushed the sport beyond recreation. The company teamed up with Charleston-based Estuary Brewing to form The Newfound Freedom Project, a collaboration that introduces people facing unique physical and mental challenges to watersports through instructional days led by some of Cabrinha’s top athletes and staff, with events through the summer in Charleston, Miami and Hood River, Oregon.
For Mobile Bay residents, the message from the sport’s traveling ambassadors is simple: the wind and the water are already here, the gear and instruction are a short drive away, and the season starts in fall. As Ware put it while packing up at the Fairhope beach: “It’s always rad to expose these sports to new people through whatever channels possible.”