XLKITES Kiteboarding Locations
Our Fort Walton/Destin teaching spot is on Okaloosa Island, a barrier island in between Fort Walton Beach and Destin Florida. On the north side of this narrow island is Choctawhatchee Bay, and on the south side is the Gulf of Mexico. On the bay side, there is one parking area. Locally known as Leeside Park, it is officially Gulf Islands National Seashore Okaloosa Area. Best is to walk east along the beach away from the parking area.
All along this southern side of the bay the water is shallow and clear with a sandy bottom. It is perfect for learning to kiteboard. The beauty of this spot is that there are no condos on this stretch of beach, so the wind is not blocked from any wind direction. It can blow smoothly without being swirled around. Because it is out in the open, this spot works on any wind direction.
The most reliable wind indications are from WeatherFlow, the company behind ikitesurf.com. They maintain two wind sensors on Okaloosa Island--one on the pier (Gulf side) and one out in the water on the bay side. Access to the real time wind indications requires an iKitesurf subscription.
We are blessed to be at the northernmost point of the Gulf of Mexico. Our sand is soft and white and our water is clear. Along the Gulf beach, conditions are pretty much the same from Dauphin Island Alabama to Appalachicola (Cape San Blas, St. George Island and Dog Island). The water is consistently clear between Pensacola and Panama City, and gets cloudier towards Alabama’s Mobile Bay.
On the Gulf side, this 250-mile stretch of beach is just about the same, and provides about the same ride experience for its entire 250-miles. Because there are no coral reefs, just an outer sand bar, the waves break the same almost everywhere along it. The only exceptions are the few jetties, piers and passes that interrupt the gulf shoreline and affect the wave action.
The beach is also typically wide with plenty of space to launch kites if not too full of people. So the only challenge is to find where you can park close enough to carry your gear, yet get to a spot with enough space away from people to launch your kite. So all the riding spots on the Gulf side are arbitrary–every spot on the gulf side is almost identical to every other spot on the gulf side. So more than anything else, our Gulf riding spots represent a convenient place to park and access the beach. And for an on-shore breeze, the Gulf is great. But in an off-shore wind, it can be deadly. Getting blown out into the Gulf of Mexico may mean you are never found again.
So where to ride when the wind is blowing out into the Gulf of Mexico? Fortunately we have many inland waterways that are safe to kite and wing. But, only some special spots have all the things we want–smooth enough wind to be fun and safe, enough space to safely launch our kites, and a general absence of other hazards. Good launch sites on the inland side are more rare, but you can see them on our map: Kiteboard Wing and Foil launch spots