hi guys, im heading to thailand shortly to railay beach at krabi. i want to take my gear but not sure if its going to be worth it. has anyone been or herd of any good spots or good sesions there to kite at railay?
cheers :)

Hey Fella,

yeah, I was there about 6 weeks ago now. I stayed (deliberately for kiteboarding) in Nai Yang, which is 20mins from airport. The entire beach is more or less dedicated for kiteboarding. And whilst it's tricky at high tide to launch, it's not that difficult either. It's pretty sheltered from the waves (apart from one spot which you can keep clear of).

See below wind guru link for wind prediction.


www.windguru.cz/208477

Also, there are about 4/5 different companies that rent kites there, so if I were you, I'd just rock up, and rent the right size kite and board for the conditions. You can also switch the board if you want. Fancy trying a directional for the first time, sure. I used these guys, but I have no officiliation so can't comment if they were better/worse/cheaper/more expensive than anyone else:

www.kiteboardingasia.com/

They have a lot of Cabs and Airrush and there's another Germanish dude who has Norths.

Whilst there are few obstacles on Nai Yang (couple of boats and mooring lines etc.) it's pretty clear open and clear.


Personally Krabi is fine for surfing, but even in off season, I personally wouldn't as it's always busy, always has many kids and tourists wondering up and down. If you're already staying in Krabi, it will take about 45-1hr to Nai Yang.

Also, I think these guys have somewhere on the south east coast if the and again they do rental:
kitesurfthailand.com/

Finally finally, there is a pretty decent wakeboard cable park in Phuket which is about 20mins from Krabi. It fills the low wind days... and if your'e going with the missus, there is a (respectable) massage place on site.

PM if you need more info.

Thanks Salty and Gokid
Very good info

Ive always found thailand to be hit or miss with the wind and had more non-kiting trips than kiting
But i mostly travel in the off season around july/august so expect this to happen
The number of times i got skunked from going to songkha, trang, krabi and phuket i lost count
I dont know if you guys have been to rayong before the place gets wind most days this time of year
Its light but do-able and theres a group of thai kiters here that are loving it

Im currently in vung tau which gets similar wind to mui ne but its alot cleaner and consistent as the wind is from the sea and not over land. During the north-east season mui ne rocks but the south-west season sux
Phu Quy sounds awesome and 1 day ill get there. We only have our 10m kites(our weights are around 70kg) so will be overpowered for sure
Ive seen on passageweather.com that Phu Quy gets the stronger wind that mui ne misses so nextv trip ill bring the 8m as well

Good winds all

kemp90 said..

just got back from railay thailand, didnt kate a kite and was kicking myself the hole time, every day at 12 it would blow 20knots till 4 in the arfternoon. next time ill take a kite for sure!!

am thinking of heading in the next few weeks, any thoughts on where is worth a look??