Mozambique
A practical guide to Kitesurfing in Mozambique
Kitesurfing trip in Mozambique: Bilene
Did you know that Mozambique is probably one of the best kitesurfing destinations yet to be discovered? If you are an adventurous and passionate kitesurfer looking for new and unexplored destinations, you have to include Mozambique in your next kitesurfing destination.
Here we present a guide with very useful information for your next kitesurfing trip to Mozambique.
Kitesurfing in Bilene Lagoon
The Bilene lagoon is probably the best kitesurfing spot in Mozambique and where the conditions for kitesurfing are unbeatable.
The Bilene lagoon, located 180km / 3h drive from Maputo and its international airport, extends over 15km.
Wind conditions in Bilene
The wind blows steadily in Bilene during the Southern Hemisphere summer. Thus, it begins in September and blows until March.
Because of this, Mozambique is an ideal destination for kitesurfing from early autumn to late winter.
Generally, the wind blows there most often from the middle of the day. Someone then presses the button, and so you ride until nightfall.
The village of Bilene
Small quiet village, Bilene reveals the bulk of its animation along the main road.
Thus, it offers fruit and vegetables, a little basic food (bring back your stocks of junk food: ultra-limited local choice), liquor stores, souvenirs and small bars and restaurants.
However, improbable decibels may surprise you on Saturday evenings. That said, not enough to affect your sleep, but enough to make you wonder what the big rocking party in town is. The answer is no: it’s the weekend. And the peaceful lagoon attracts its fair share of Mozambican city dwellers on weekends.
Besides, you will inevitably end up drinking a cocktail at Junior around the corner at some point during your stay. We are very well received there, and the cocktails rock.
Apart from Saturday evenings, Bilene returns to its usual cruising rhythm, all in peace, all in slowness…
As a result, a kitesurfing trip to Mozambique, in Bilene, is not for fans of wild fiestas. Here, it’s more aperitifs facing the lagoon in chill out mode, than bar hopping. You would have quickly made the rounds in any case… That said, you never say no to a small digestive!
In bilene, it’s always cool, without excess and in zen mode. In summary, a little more modeled on the rhythm of the sun and the thermals than on the evenings.
Why you will love a kitesurfing holiday in Mozambique?
The water is hot
Windy in autumn – winter
The country is safe
African rhythm
A spot for all levels
Beach service sur le spot
Road trips et downwinders
Kitesurfing conditions in Bilene, Mozambique
The wind generally rises in the middle of the day, leaving you plenty of time to have breakfast facing the lagoon. Some depressions bring wind from the dawn, but more often than not, you take advantage of your mornings to sleep, read, take time for breakfast (the hotel restaurant has a good coffee machine!), have a stand up paddle ride on the still glassy lagoon.
And as soon as the wind picks up, the sun at its zenith, the lagoon is yours!
The kitesurf school in Mozambique offers, with a minimum number of participants, downwinds, trip wagues and half days to the speed run spot. Something to delight beginners as well as the most experienced, including intermediates. Indeed, they will find a spot perfectly suited to progress!
Bilene Lagoon kite spot
Bilene Lagoon is an ideal spot for all levels of practitioners
With its kilometers of shoreline to explore for the more experienced, and its vast area of shallow water ideal for learning and progressing, the Uembje lagoon is an incredible sailing spot.
Occasionally open to the sea, the lagoon is separated from Praia do Bilene by a long strip of sand dunes. This huge lagoon offers safe and diversified navigation.
The Bilene lagoon is the perfect spot for leaving a course or improving your skills.
Uncrowded, with predictable wind and a huge area of shallow water, it is the ideal spot for validating your upwind, trying your first tricks, or even boosting your progress.
Thanks to its mainly side-shore wind in season (September to March), you can easily manage your drift if you are not yet upwind all the time.
And if that’s already the case, then Bilene will offer you a huge freeride playground to explore, in idyllic conditions.
Mozambique is a great spot to explore for autonomous kitesurfers
Experienced kitesurfers will find in the Bilene lagoon a pure freeride terrain, with, depending on the direction of the wind, multiple faces and configurations!
Notice to wave riders: the pass, if sometimes accessible in a few tacks with the right wind direction, is most often a big job in terms of waves. Do not venture there, of course, even at your own risk and peril, without consulting the owner of the center for up-to-date local knowledge. We insist on this last parameter.
If the lagoon also presents a pure freestyle playground, up-to-date local knowledge required as well.*
Conclusion
Why you’re going to love Bilène’s place?
In Bilene, the Beaches are magnificent, the waters are crystal clear and beyond the interior lagoon, there is the ocean and its waves.
The water is hot. You mostly sail in lycra and if the southerly wind is blowing hard then a shorty might be welcome.
Laguna de Unos is 15 km from Largo and 2 km from Anker and offers several kitesurfing spots with great depths, perfect for beginners or freestyle fans.
There is also an amazing kite speed spot. It is super flat. Brilliant for fans of high speeds.
Steady, regular trade winds blow in thermals most days at 12-15 knots, but when blowing from the south they often reach 25 knots or more.
What is the best season to kite trip in Bilene, Mozambique?
With an exceptional climate, with an air temperature of 24ºC and a water temperature of 23ºC and 28ºC, Bilene is the ideal place to spend most of your kitesurfing vacation.
The biggest event for a kitesurfing trip in Mozambique is from September to February.
What is the level required for a kitesurfing trip in Bilene, Mozambique?
If you feel like freeriding, downwinding, freestyle or surfing in the ocean, you will find Buscas in Bilene. And above all, if you have a beginner or intermediate level, learning and progressing will be very easy taking advantage of a totally safe, shallow lagoon, with warm water and constant winds.