Introduction
The Outer Banks is a challenging place to write about from a kiteboarding perspective. It is huge. There are many spots. It is the best place to kite on the East Coast of the United States. It is the best place to learn in the whole country. It has what we believe are the two largest kiteboarding schools in the US, perhaps the world. It has miles of shallow water on the Pamlico Sound and miles of wave action on the Atlantic Ocean side.
Geography
The geography of the Outer Banks is unique. The Outer Banks, frequently referred to as OBX, actually refers to a series of islands and shoreline stretching from north to south along most the east coast of North Carolina. When kiteboarders refer to OBX they usually mean the most prominent island, Hatteras Island. The island is a ribbon of sand that stretches 40 miles south from the Bonner Bridge and then jogs off 10 miles to the west to Hatteras town. Three miles wide at its widest and frequently less than a mile wide.
The east coast of the United States is decorated with hundreds of barrier islands. Almost all of them are quite close to the mainland, easily seen, frequently with small bridges connecting them to the mainland, think Miami Beach and Jacksonville Beach. Even the bridge to Hilton Head is not that long. Hatteras Island on the contrary sits as much as 30 miles out to sea with the expansive Pamlico Sound between the island and the mainland.
The towns on Hatteras Island from north to south are Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, Buxton, Frisco, and Hatteras town, town to distinguish it from the whole island. Rodanthe, Waves and Salvo together make up the Tri-Villages area and the towns are indistinguishable. Avon has more restaurants and the only full sized grocery store on the island. Buxton is at the elbow of Hatteras Island where the island turns from south back the west. Frisco is small but has a great doughnut shop, Orange Blossom, and the only lumber yard on the island. Hatteras town is a center sport fishing and features the ferry to the island of Ocracoke.
The Tri-Villages area is the center of kiteboarding activity on Hatteras Island. Home to Real Watersports, at this point, probably the busiest and most world renowned kiteboarding school, in the world Real also has a great kiteboarding gear shop, and restaurant. Kitty Hawk Kites has a kiteboarding school that is not far behind Real in terms of size and also has a great kiteboarding shop and restaurant.
What Makes OBX Special for Kiteboarding?
So what makes OBX in general and Hatteras Island in particular such a special place for kiteboarding? It’s really two things, shallow water, and great wind. The water of the Pamlico Sound is shallow, not over your head, for a mile or more in many places. If you are learning to kiteboard, shallow water is a godsend. When you fall, you simply stand up, re-launch your kite, and walk back upwind to your board. No upwind body dragging. No losing your board. There are plenty of places with shallow water for a few hundred feet, but none with as big an area of shallow water and so accessible to a huge proportion of the US population.
Wind is the other thing that makes Hatteras Island a special place to kiteboard. When wind travels over land it bounces off trees, houses, hills, and mostly stays a hundred feet above your head in most places on the east coast. That causes the wind to be gusty. Geographically out to sea so to speak, Hatteras Island, experiences wind that settles down from its heights, flows right over the water, smooths out and becomes less gusty, and picks up speed. In a beautiful expression of Boyle’s Law the result is more wind and better quality wind (less gusty) than almost anywhere. The junction of the Labrador current with the Gulf Stream just east of Hatteras Island also enhances the wind.
In short Hatteras Island is a kiteboarding dream, the best place on the east coast to kiteboard, and one of, if not the, best place, to learn to kiteboard in the world.
Spots
The shallow flat water of OBX make it ideal for kiteboarding. Limited public access to the water detracts somewhat from the desirability area in general. Well known public access spots are already crowded in good wind. Kiteboarding is growing rapidly in popularity. It is not hard to see a time in the not too distant future when hundreds of kiters want to access the water from the same few spots and control at access points may become necessary.
For many miles north and south of the Tri-Villages Area you get shallow water and great wind. The key question then is how to access that water. Running north to south from the Bonner Bridge you drive through 10+ miles of the Pea Island National Wildlife Area where kiteboarding is not permitted. You can kite in the Pamlico Sound to the west of Pea Island, you just can’t walk across the sand to get to the beach to set up and launch.
The Pea Island National Wildlife area ends when you enter the Tri-Villages Area. Most of the Tri-Villages Area is developed with single family homes. So most of the access to the Pamlico Sound is private. There are relatively few public access spots. Running south from Pea Island we will highlight the major public access points for kiteboarders.
On Hatteras the primary access points to the Pamlico Sound, starting in the north and heading south, are Kitty Hawk Kites and the area just north of it, Real Watersports, the Salvo Day Use Area, 46, 48, Chimi House, 51, 52, 53, Vermont Hole, Canadian Hole Haulover, Kite Point, Buxton Slicks, Frisco Campgrounds, and Washout. Very generally these spots have the following in common, great flat shallow water, poor parking, small beaches with limited space for multiple kites, fellow kiters on a good day, and too many kiters on a great day.
Kitty Hawk Kites
Address: 24502 NC Highway 12, Rodanthe, NC 27982.
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Kitty Hawk Kites is a kiteboarding school/kite shop/kite spot with a nice restaurant and a great lawn from which to launch and land. Good parking, easy access to the launch area. Real Watersports limits use of its similar facility to kiters taking instruction at Real and those staying at the condos, Waterman’s Retreat, owned by Real that are just north of the shop. Kitty Hawk, on the other hand opens their lawn to all comers. That makes this a busy place on a good wind day. Not so coincidentally the nice restaurant at Kitty Hawk is called, what else, Good Winds. The author suspects unlimited public access may not last forever as kiteboarding gains a greater following and this spot becomes crowded. For now, this is one of the best places to launch and land in the Tri-Villages area.
The lawn is great for set up and landing. KHK also has compressed air available to inflate kites and anchor points to attach kites when not in use. Be sure to secure your kite as wind swirls around the buildings making unanchored kites prone to movement. The walk into the water is down a cement walkway that is covered in seaweed and other marine growth at its distal end, making it very slippery. Take care getting in and out of the water. Most slip and fall accidents here will injure your ego far more than your fanny, but why mess up your session ending stoke with a fall that makes you look like a newbie.
Another possibility is a small beach that grows with an outgoing tide just north of the condominiums that are in turn just north of Kitty Hawk. This little known beach still feels like public access, probably is privately owned, but no one is running folks off it at this point.
Part of the beauty of this spot is the shop and the restaurant. The shop has kite gear, clothing, and a small shop for gear repair. The restaurant is sometimes quite good, but up and down, seemingly with whoever happens to be the head chef.
Real Watersports
Address: 25706 NC Highway 12, Waves, NC 27982
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Description
If OBX is the Vatican City of east coast kiteboarding, then Real Watersports is the St. Peters Cathedral. The restaurant is great. The vibe is cool. There is plenty of parking. There is frequently live entertainment nightly. The kiteboarding shop is second to none. The kiteboarding school is huge. Real is home to the Triple S kiteboarding competition. Over the last few years, disappointingly, it’s become “Single S” as the competition has been limited to sliders, the other two “Ss” stood for surf and slicks, both more fun to watch than sliders. However, there is never a better set of parties on Hatteras Island than the second week of June, at Real, the week of Triple S. Dude alert! On Thursday night of Triple S week there is a swimsuit fashion show featuring OBX hotties and the competing kiteboarding girls, not to be missed. Even better is the party on Friday night of Triple S, a see and be seen affair that sells out every year, so get your tickets early in the week.
The challenge with Real is that access is limited to kiteboarders attending the kiteboarding school at Real and those staying at the Waterman’s Retreat. Real has a huge grassy area to set up gear with compressed air to inflate kites. Accessing the water after launching your kite from the grassy area can be challenging. There is a muddy path surrounded by marsh and a small boardwalk that can be very slippery. If you’re privileged to enjoy the access at Real, the kiteboarding looks potentially phenomenal, as just south of Real a point of land hooks out west and then north creating what is known as the Real Slick, an especially flat piece of water in an already idyllic place to kite.
Salvo Day Use Area
Location: Not sure this location has an address. Really it is the last road to the west off NC 12 when leaving the Tri-Villages headed south. Look for the road to the parking lot on the right after you pass the last house in Salvo, NC, headed south.
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The Salvo Day Use Area (SDA) is truly public access to the Pamlico Sound. It is a public park, with plenty of parking. The kiteboarding is stellar. The only negative is the relatively small beach from which to launch and land. That, however, is a fairly consistent theme in OBX. Incredible kiting from inadequate launch and land sites. The water is shallow, the chop hardly noticeable, and in the prevailing southwest summer wind, the consequence of failing to track net upwind is a very manageable walk of shame.
Then wind tends to be squirrelly close to shore in any wind direction so it’s advisable to launch and ride out as soon as possible. SDA also serves as a major access point for kiters and swimmers so be considerate when launching and landing.
46
Location: Next access point south of SDA near Mile Marker 46. Parking along 12 is permitted. If you have an Off-Road permit you may park on the sandy portion of the access path.
46, sometimes referred to as “Planet of the Apes” serves as the closest access point to the area on the sound known as Planet of the Apes (POA) and sometimes shortened to The Planet. Why Planet of the Apes? Because if you have an issue kiting it is impossible to get out. The scrub brush between the water and NC 12 is so thick it would be easier to stay in the water and walk to either SDA or 46. POA is located south of SDA and north of 46 contains many interesting riding characteristics. There is a large slick and many different “channels” to run through. You may want to look on google maps as some channels terminate in a dead-end forcing you to either struggle upwind with incredibly short tacks or walk out. Don’t crash and drop your kite on the “land” between fingers of water that extend deeply into the marsh as you’ll be fetching your kite in a snake infested mucky swamp.
48
Location: Again a spot unimaginatively named for the nearest mile marker on NC 12.
Another idyllic kite spot with great flat shallow water, inadequate parking and insufficient beach for the sometimes crowd of kiters that descend on this spot, particularly in the Spring and Summer southwest winds.
One of the real attractions of this spot is that it is nearly parallel to an island that is almost exactly 2 miles off the beach. It is called Gull Island but we fancy the its nickname, “Bird Shit Island” for reasons that will be obvious when you visit. The interesting bit about Gull Island is that the water in this area gets quite shallow, but unlike so much of the Pamlico Sound the water is much more clear, less vegetation, you can clearly see the sandy bottom, much better visibility than in most of the Sound. If you squint you can imagine yourself in an idyllic Caribbean Cay without having paid the exorbitant airfare and hotel cost to get to this really cool spot. In addition the island is not much more than a sand bar for much of its length. In a Spring/Summer southwest wind the island blocks the bit of wave action that develops on most of the Sound and combined with the shallow depth, the water on the east side of the island can be butter flat even in high wind.
In late Spring, Summer, and early Fall the prevailing wind in OBX is southwest. That means that up and down Hatteras from the Tri-Villages area to the Buxton Slicks the wind is onshore or side/onshore. With its large parking lot, shallow water, and adequate beach for landing SDA is a great place to end a downwinder and any of the spots below are a great place to start a downwinder. Ideally you have two cars, drop one at SDA, drive down to one of the spots described below, do a downwinder to SDA and drive the dropped car back to your spot of origin to pick up the other car. This is a great way for beginners that have mastered riding but not net upwind riding to avoid countless boring and tiring walks of shame. Its also a great way to explore seemingly endless natural beauty of miles of undeveloped Hatteras shoreline.
Chimi House
Location: South of 48, the turnout and access to this area can be identified by looking for the old boarded up lifesaving station on the west side of NC 12.
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Not many go to this spot. That’s probably because you need 4-wheel drive vehicle and permit to access the rather long soft sand path that leads to the beach. You can walk the path but if your feet aren’t burnt by the hot sand in Summer, your legs will be exhausted by trudging through the soft sand with all your gear several hundred feet.
51, 52 & 53
Location: Each of these turnouts are near their respective mile marker signs
These three kite spots are sometimes called first turnout, second turnout, and third turnout. That might make sense when coming from Avon, but coming from the north, that naming convention is not as helpful. Better to identify these turnouts by the nearest mile marker. The beach, setup, launch, and land are like many other areas in OBX not as large as you’d like but they provide alternatives. If one is crowded, try one of the others.
Canadian Hole & Kite Point
Location: South of Avon, NC.
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This “spot” is actually several spots or one depending on your point of view. Along 2.5 miles of Hatteras Island south of Avon and before the turn to the west for Buxton there are a number of places to park and a series of kite spots on the Pamlico Sound. From north heading south, they are variously named but a good list is Vermont Hole, Canadian Hole, Haulover, Kite Point, and the Buxton Slicks.
Hatteras Island is very narrow and low lying in this area. There is no development and few trees. The result is an area that’s good in north, south, west and even to some extent an east wind. Just after departing the beach there is a dredged channel in some of this area but generally the water is very shallow and as a result very flat. In fact when you get down to the Buxton Slicks the water is dangerously shallow. You can be cooking along only to realize that a fall would be through 3 inches of water onto hardpack sand involving broken bones or worse.
There is plenty of parking here. The further south you go its great to have a beach permit to take your 4 wheel drive vehicle down to a suitable place to launch. At the part called Kite Point there is a fairly sizeable beach, better than most other launch/land spots in OBX.
We group these spots together as they are close enough to kite easily from one to the other and its really just up to the kiter and the wind direction, the available parking and whim as to which part of this spectacular area you want to kite.
Frisco Campgrounds
Location: 53415 Billy Mitchell Rd, Frisco, NC 27936
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This area is actually on the property of the Frisco Woods Campgrounds but kiters refer to it as the Frisco Campgrounds, not to be confused with the Frisco Campground on the opposite side of Hatteras Island, the ocean side, less than a mile away. The Frisco Campground does charge admission, not much, but we report that in case that is a deal breaker.
Frisco Campgrounds can be a good place to kite in a north wind. Many of the spots from Rodanthe to Buxton can be bad in a northeast wind but Frisco Campgrounds, being on the western extension of Hatteras Island gets much smoother, less gusty wind when its blowing from the northeast as is not uncommon in the Fall or Winter. There is a reasonable amount of space to set up, launch, and land. However, launching and landing can be a bit sketchy as there are nearby power poles and an unlucky placement of a tree or two. Step far out into the water here to launch and have your launcher stand at water’s edge, as is good practice in most other places as well.
Washout
Location: east of Hatteras town, north side of NC 12, two entrances to the newly enlarged and improved parking area.
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This is probably the best place to kite on Hatteras Island in a northeast wind, unless you fancy a wave session on the Atlantic Ocean. Just about as far to the west on Hatteras Island as you can get a good spot to kite, a northeast wind has passed over the obstructions on Hatteras Island many miles before you feel it at Washout. The result good, clean, non-gusty wind. Shallow water keeps it flat, and provides the comfort of a walk back to your board that is so common in OBX and missing from most other kite spots.