Downwinds kitesurfing in Mallorca. If you ever enjoyed a downwind ride kitesurfing you will agree with us that can be a fantastic experience. Are there possible downwinds in the coast of Mallorca?
At least, in the North of Mallorca, on Pollensa Bay, I can tell of a possible downwind. In that case it wouldn’t be a long downwind but in any case, a large good one, especially for those in need of some space in front of them to be able to try as many waterstarts as needed and with it, achieve their first successful kitesurfing rides.
Which will be the exact translation of the spanish word: Saliente? mmm … My english language skills don’t get that far. I suppose the translation should be: a rock ledge, some sort of rock platform which protrudes into the sea.
What do we mean with it? I mean a space, a specific place on the shape of the shore, which in our case, it is as a point of about 10×8 square meters, from where a line such as that could be written: Our kitesurfing started on a rock ledge on the coast
The good part of the story is that, due of its location, this rock ledge exist in our bay, not far from where we have our kite lessons, and this rock ledge could be used to start a kitesurfing downwind.
In the next two photos you can see the exact location of our -“saliente”- rock ledge for downwinds.
This first one shows the exact location. As can be seen it is not too far from our natural kitespot in Pollensa Bay, the authorized area to teach kitesurfing on our island.
The second photo show the “saliente” itself, the rock ledge and its shape, including the submerged part of it.
What a great kite downwind point
The point it is easy to reach, we can park barely 50 mts from it and carry our board and kite until there.
Where starts the dark part of the task? … on the ground of which our ledge, it is of two kinds, firstly it is just a base of rock … which, as consequence of the years and the storms from NW, the waves and the sea erosion have shaped as a what we could call a “very sharp rock”
That is why, we should be extremely careful about it, in order to not damage our kite.
Thanks to the next link we can see a video of the saliente and, especially, of the part of it which is submerged -which, at the same time, it is the positive part of it-
As the video shows, the submerged part of our rock ledge is is covered of some sort of vegetal underwater carpet, which definitely facilitates standing on top of it, though it is recommended, in case you decide to try yourself, to not do it barefoot. A booties or a neoprene socks will protect your feet of any possible harm
and … on the next photo, the awaited reward, looking forward we can see plenty water space downwind, some 600 mts at least from where, once our kite is it launched, to enjoy the free space downwind and the absence of any wave which may complicated your waterstart and first ride attempts
It is evident that we should have some sort of assistance to achieve the absolute success in out legitimate task, to have a good downwind ride.
Depending of the type of kite we are using, the method of launching may differ.
If it is a tube kite, we should be, especially, very careful how and where to pump the kite -not on the hard shaped ground beneath our feet- therefore, pump the kite in other place, and with the help of one or two assistents carry it until the water, and there, place it on top of the water, let it drift downwind and launch it, actually a “normal” water relaunch.
If our kite is a foil, we should also be very careful about the filling of the kite, preferably to roll the tips of the foil and just fill a couple of meters of the central part of the kite. Carry it until the water, one, or better two assistents get into the water and start unrolling the foil kite from the center to the tips as the kite it is filling itself, until there is enough air on it to let it go, while the future downwinder fellow is pulling gently from the central lines, grabbed with his right hand over the kite bar.
And a final panoramic photo of the whole rock ledge, pros and cons included.
