What Is a Kitesurf Downwinder? A Simple Guide for Your First One

A downwinder is a kite session with a destination. You do not ride out and back in front of the same beach: you start in one place and ride with the wind to another, a few kilometres or a few dozen kilometres further along the coast.

It feels different from a normal session. When you stay at one spot, a large part of your energy goes into riding upwind so you do not drift away. On a downwinder you stop fighting that. The wind pushes you where you want to go, the board runs freely, and the coast scrolls past: dunes, villages, lagoons, empty beach.

Because you do not come back to where you started, a downwinder needs a little organisation. Someone has to bring you, your bag and your pump to the finish. That is why downwinds are usually done with a vehicle following on land. On our trips it is a buggy or a car with a private driver, carrying water, spare gear and your luggage.

How good do you need to be? Less than most people think. If you can ride in both directions, stay upwind when you need to and relaunch your kite from the water, a short guided downwind is within reach. The skill we do insist on is self-rescue, because help can be a little further away than at your home spot.

The place matters too. A good downwind coast has steady wind blowing along the shore and slightly towards it (side-onshore), so that you always drift back to the beach and never out to sea. It also needs long beaches without obstacles. The coast of Ceará in Brazil has both, which is why it became the world reference for downwinders.

A first downwind is usually short: 20 km takes roughly two hours on the water with breaks. Our guide rides with you, sets the pace, and briefs you before and after. Longer trips link several days in a row, sleeping in a different village each night.

The best way to understand a downwinder is to do one. Our one-day initiation near Jericoacoara was designed for exactly that.