After almost 10 years living in Sal and windsurfing and surfing all over the island, Jean-Sebastien and Marina Lange have created the ultimate guide to windsurfing in Sal.
This guide isn’t aimed at providing you with all the information for each spot, but rather to give you the desire to get away from the crowd and discover your own perfect spot.
What is the best period for wind?
While you occasionally have wind all year long, the trade winds usually start blowing in mid-November until June. The wind is often light (14-20 knots) but is usually stronger from mid-January to March / April (up to 25-30 knots). We rarely get anything stronger than this.
What is best period for waves?
The first swells arrive in October and become more and more frequent. The biggest swells are from December to March. You can still catch a good north-west swell in April and May. In the summer you can sometimes catch some swell from the south, which are smaller but still great.
Santa Maria
The bay of Santa Maria faces the south. The wind here is port-tack, side-off shore. You need to be careful on these spots because they seem to be very safe but if you have a problem or break something, the next stop is probably Brazil! (Don’t panic – we do have a jet-ski!).
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East Coast
The wind on the East Coast spots is port tack onshore to side-onshore. The waves are usually not too powerful and the spots are safe. When there is no swell but medium to strong wind, this coast can catch some rather good wind swell. Generally the conditions are more or less like Europe… But with sun, turquoise warm water and trade winds!
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West Coast
Now we are talking about WAVES. While other spots on the East and South coasts can get some pretty big waves, they are still safe. But when the swell comes in from the North West, these spots on the West coast can be dangerous.
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