Kiteboarding St. Martin

02 Nov 2006
Photos : Tracy Kraft

In spite of its crystal-turquoise waters and consistent sideshore trades, Orient Beach, St. Martin, isn’t widely known as a kiteboarding destination. Rather, it has international renown as a “naturist” paradise, or, in more common terms “nude beach”. However, team riders assured us that it had great riding potential, so we set out to conquer the unclothed masses, or at least ignore them and get some sick riding done.

Dano See, our head tester, came directly from China with factory-fresh 2006 gear in tow. He met me at the airport in a massive Renault Traffic passenger van, courtesy of Jumbo Car Rental in Sandy Ground. At first sight, it appeared this massive vehicle would be sufficient to shuttle our entire crew around the island, but a closer look revealed a van packed floor-to-ceiling with kites, boards and accessories.

Our first stop was for supplies – a couple of six packs and some water for good measure. Dano and I had a full 12 hours to kill before the rest of the team arrived and we planned to use our time wisely, in typical Canadian/Australian fashion..


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