Margarita Island is famous among windsurfers throughout the world. With its strong, consistent wind, warm water, and beautiful temperature, it's not surprising that Margarita Island hosts Professional Windsurfing Association competitions each year. Margarita is not just for the pros, though. Windsurfers at all levels seek out the favorable conditions at Playa El Yaque.

Margarita Island is out of the hurricane belt and El Yaque’s waters are not plagued by jelly fish, sharks, or intrusive reefs. The wind blowing off the shore is generally lighter in the morning, giving beginners the perfect opportunity to get their bearings. Around 1:00pm, the wind fills in and blows steadily until nightfall! El Yaque’s shallow area extends for 100m, providing the perfect conditions for beginners and those practicing their tricks and maneuvers.

The winds generally blow all year with the windiest time from January to March, the least windy from August to October. Even in the least windy times, you would expect planning conditions for almost half of your holiday. The wind usually builds up during the day, peaking in mid afternoon. You can have planning conditions all day.

There is typically a constant wind build up throughout the day, creating more challenging conditions as the day progresses. El Yaque’s shallow, sandy bottom extends for over 300 yards from shore making this an ideal place to learn techniques such as waterstarting, jibing and jumping. Beginner sailors enjoy the conditions closer to shore with flat, shallow water. The wind blows relentlessly sideshore at speeds varying from 15 – 30 knots. Expert sailors find 3 – 6 ft. swells that develop further offshore offering exciting jump and bump conditions.

The Kitesurfing in Margarita El Yaque is the perfect spot for beginners and advanced kitesurfers. The mornings are excellent for practicing, perfect conditions for beginner and intermediate kitesurfers, because there is mostly light wind between 2- 3 Bft. The wind will pick up in the afternoon from 4 to 7 Bft. One of the great things about this location is the variety of different spots on offer, each with it own unique conditions:

El Yaque - The Kitesurfing conditions are very straightforward. There is usually no shore break, the beach and underwater is sandy and it is shallow (chest deep) for 3-400 meters from the beach, marked by a small platform. There is a distinct line as the bottom shelves away and the water is a much deeper blue. The chop starts building up and even further out you can get some reasonable sized swell coming down the channel between Margarita and Coche.

El Yaque has recently become the venue for a number of major windsurfing contests, which are regularly attended by the world's best surfers. The really excellent freestyle and, for that matter, wave-riding levels thus do not come as a particular surprise. Quite a number of surfers have matured to World Cup level here, and the young Margaritenos are only waiting for their chance. Some of you might learn a few additional tricks and skills from them.

Windsurfers, kitesurfers, non-surfers – they all gather in the numerous beach bars after sunset to enjoy one of the delicious fruit cocktails served there and chat about the varied events of the day, exchange all the things they've been up to that day and share pleasurable expectations of the next day.

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NEW ! Margarita Island Travel Ebook !

 

Margarita is also the home of Professional PWA Sailor: Ricardo Campello

	Birthday July 16th 1985
	Nationality Brazilian
	Residence Venezuela
	Debut 0 Sail # V-111
	Website: ricardo-campello.com

Biography:

Well, I am going to tell you a little bit how I started my career. I was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the first sport I was keen on was soccer. Then one of my uncles who was a racing driver pushed me into go-karts. Moreover, my dad almost gave me one as a present. After the accident of the best Formula One driver Ayrton Senna, I was really sad about what had happened and I gave up karting. Later some of my friends started surfing. I had an advantage that I lived right in front of the beach in Rio, so I started doing it too. I was really in a pretty good road until my mother and stepfather had to move to Isla Margarita, Venezuela. That was a big change in my life. I’ve been living here on the island since 1998. The main sport here is windsurfing and everything is connected with it. I made my friends who wanted to do it and we started doing it together. Everyday I loved it more and more. Then I got my first sponsor and I went to a few small contests around the Caribbean winning some of them. Since I started windsurfing and I saw the guys doing forward loops, flips and moves which I didn't know what they were, I put in my mind only one thing - I wanted to be good at that. In 2000 or 2001 I got the support from JP and Neil Pryde. At that stage I could say I was at a pretty good level, and together with my mum we decided that I should go to my first PWA contest. I went to Austria, but unfortunately, there was not enough wind to compete. Anyway, during the warm-up sessions people were really impressed of me and I got a lot of coverage, which gave me and my sponsors a lot of confidence. JP invited me to my first photo shooting in my life. I left school and everything behind just to start my career as a professional windsurfer, as I always wanted to be. So, here I am. I made my dream come true, which was to be a world champion. Now, my next goal is to keep this title for many more years!

2003	2000
- PWA Freestyle World Champion	- 1st - Margarita Hi-winds Freestyle
- 1st - PWA World Cup Pozo Freestyle	- 1st - Junior Aruba KING OF THE HUTS Freestyle
- 1st - PWA World Finals Bonaire
- 4th- PWA Fuerteventura Super-X
- 5th- PWA Fuerteventura Freestyle
2002	1999
- PWA World Freestyle Vice-Champion	- 1st - Junior Aruba KING OF THE HUTS Freestyle
- 4th - PWA Freestyle Finals Bonaire	- 1st - KING OF EL YAQUE Freestyle
- 7th - PWA Canada - Freestyle
- 1st - PWA Fuerteventura - Freestyle
- 3rd - PWA Pozo, Gran Canaria - Freestyle
- 1st - Ceara Wind Jericuacuara Brazil
2001
- 1st -Margarita Hi-winds Freestyle
- 1st - Prince of the Lake - Lake Garda, Italy
- 13th - PWA Pozo, Gran Canaria - Freestyle
- 8th - PWA Fuerteventura - Freestyle
- PWA Overall Freestyle - 9

Sponsors:
Neil Pryde
JP Australia
Maui Fin Company
Varig
Dwarf 8
Rankings Ranked #28 in Wave