Kiteboarding in Bora Bora

My wife and I recently took an anniversary trip to Bora Bora and I decided to take my kiteboarding gear with me.

We stayed in an over-the-water bungalow room at the Le Moanana Resort on the far southern tip of the main island. One of the common reviews about this resort is that it tends to be windy and that wasn't a negative aspect in my opinion.

The water in Bora Bora is fairly shallow and is crystal clear. Snorkeling in the water is like swimming in a huge aquarium. We saw many types of colorful fish, eels, urchins and stingrays. I did not see any sharks, but this might have to do more with the shallow waters around our resort.

Traveling to Bora Bora from Dulles airport near Washington DC took a long time. It's a total of 15 hours of actual air time, but the associated delays in bus, tram and boat transfers added even more time. It took essentially a day and a half to get there.

The official language on Bora Bora is French. The locals tend to speak Tahitian among themselves. English is commonly spoken in the resort areas and most vendors know a little English to effect transactions. The main island is small. It took only 1.5 hours to circle around it on a moped.

Even though the lagoon is a tropical paradise, there is (ironically) very little sand beaches available. Most of the shore line is composed of sharp coral and lava rocks. The Le Moaona resort has the only natural beach on the entire island, but it's still very small. Launching the Flysurfer Pulse 12m meant a straight downwind, sidelaunch and then a dicey walk through the shallow coral beds into the deeper waters.

The corals were very sharp and dangerous. I actually tore a set of thick SCUBA booties on the first day. Luckily, since the water was so clear, it was easy to identify the coral and to steer away from them.

After the first day of kiting, I decided to walk out and do a drift launch with the Pulse. This was much safer and kept my walking down to a minimum. I had some reservations, but with the shallow waters and the steady wind, I was able to launch without issues.

My wife took some photos of me on the Pulse. The winds were mostly 10 knots and up almost every day. It averaged around 15 and up for the large part of our trip. In hindsight, I should have taken my LF Envy since it would have been easier to drift launch.

It wasn't an inexpensive vacation, but it was a very nice trip. I would not hesitate to visit again.

-joedy

Here are some more images.

-joedy