(I visited Sal between February 10 and March 18, 2020)
If you practice kite, you have probably heard of the island of Sal, the truth is that after having traveled half the world, it seemed crazy not to have visited Sal being so close to home. According to San Google: Cape Verde is made up of 10 volcanic islands and was discovered in 1460. At first they called it Llana, but later two huge salt flats were discovered and renamed sal. Construction began on the first airport in 1939 but was not completed until 1949 due to World War II. The island is 30 km long 11km long. And, did you know that there are salt flats inside the crater of a volcano? I show you photos later 😉
The average number of sunny days on the island of Sal is 350 days a year and the average temperature ranges between 20ºc and 27ºc
WHY I WENT TO SAL
The Island of Salt and its wave, Ponta Preta are known worldwide and well, the truth is that it was a destination that I always had in mind. The opportunity to visit Sal came with the first round of the Kitesurf World Championship (waves and strapless freestyle).
Let's go there.
HOW TO GET THERE
I do not recommend at all to choose the option that I chose. I flew very fast, but I paid a lot of money. I paid €250 for round trip and €150 each way for sports luggage. Normally people usually fly through Portugal and there are several companies that offer cheap flights from other European cities. I'm not going to name the airline, but, it's a local airline and I flew: Fuerteventura- Gran Canaria- Sal.
For the rest, once you arrive at the airport and to get to Santa María you can rent your own car or go with a taxi, they will charge you about € 15 and in twenty-five minutes you have arrived.
ACCOMMODATION
There are a lot of hotels to choose from, as I do not get the tickets, I decided to look for a little bit of local people and rent. It is very cheap, water, electricity, gas and cleaning costs usually go separately. My apartment didn't have wifi, which in these times is vital... But for, basically, the same price as in Spain you can buy a sim with internet and merge it.
I'm not going to put hosting options here because they are very easy to Google and, I have decided not to put advertising for a tube in this blog. To get the contact of local people where to rent... Well, I'll think how I put it, for now I leave you with the intrigue 😛
THE KITE SPOT
The island of Sal has several spots but, the most famous is Ponta Preta
. It was the spot where in theory the first for the GKA Kitesurf was going to be made, but in the end the conditions decided not to do their part. A part. Other spots (click on each name to know the location) are:
*Ponta Preta: it is the wave spot par excellence, the wind is practically pure off-shore so if you still drop the kite, this is not your spot. If the waves are not very big, you can perfectly enjoy the spot. Always having common sense and taking into account that the rocks are closer than it seems.
* Kite Beach
: It is the beach of the tourist, of the zipper addicts. It usually has “choppy” or mini waves, it is actually a fun and easy beach to learn and gain confidence.
* Secret Spot: it is reached by dirt road and I am not able to find it on the map but, asking you reach Rome.
Let’s go over the typical questions you ask when you go to a spot for the first time:
– WATER TEMPERATURE: The water is hot, more than in Fuerteventura at the same time of year and the air is also warm. I wore a 2mm shorty from
ION, the MUSE model
(long sleeve and short leg) but there were also people who went without neoprene, in a T-shirt… And other people who went with a long 3/2. I think a good consideration to keep in mind is that the sun burns, better to protect yourself from it.
– KITE SIZES: I with my 60kg mainly used 7 and 9m DICE.
I took the 5m and 11m and I think I used them only once.
– AIR TEMPERATURE: the air is warm but at the same time cool, when the wind blows and you have nowhere to hide, I always wore a sweatshirt or something similar since it was cold. At night it cools down, Fuerteventura type, so it doesn’t hurt to take warm clothes.
GKA: THE COMPETITION
It was my first time competing in waves. I was calm but nervous at the same time, it was my first time competing and I had little to lose but a lot to prove, I guess. I was the 2 months before the competition injured, I cracked my elbow. This prevented me from training in waves but physically I was able to continue training... I noticed that I lacked a lot of experience, especially in the spot in which we had to compete (Kite Beach), it was a great choppy and choosing a wave was very difficult for me since waves came out everywhere but, you had to choose the good wave. And this is where the experience comes into play and where I noticed it the most. I competed in the first round and in the repechage and I stayed in the playoff, by very few points but I did not advance. Anyway, I had a great time watching my compis compete and we had a great time.
THINGS TO DO
I’m not going to lie to you, no wind or waves, the island of Sal is quite boring. Anyway, I’m going to list the tourist things that can be done:
- Go around the village and buy souvenirs.
- Volcano crater and the salt flat inside.
- Check out the waterfalls.
MUSIC
One of the things I liked most about Cape Verde was the music, so
here
I leave you a list of songs I heard during my stay on the island.
SUMMARIZING
Someone will be angry about my comment but, Sal looks a lot like Fuerteventura. The sand, the water, the mountains… On the other hand, it is a small island where relaxing is very easy because there is not much to do. I recommend eating in local restaurants as they have some more than interesting dishes. Ponta Preta is amazing and is a relatively simple wave. And, the parties in the cocktail bars are some of the most fun parties I’ve ever done in my life.
Training photos are by Stephan R
See you in the water,
