The north-east trade wind only accelerates by five to ten knots on the last three kilometres of the 40 km long reservoir. The hot dry steppe of Guanacaste sucks the cooler, humid air masses from the highlands north of Laguna Arenal sideshore over the ticowind.com station.
The only possible launch site can only be reached via a 1.5 km long dirt track. After heavy rainfall, driving there without a 4WD is borderline. Before we arrived, it rained non-stop for two days.
On the first day, the basic wind was gusting between 25 and 33 knots. I go out with the nine. The entry is over a slippery red clay bottom. Once you brace yourself with the board, it still looks like an Indian 2 hours later. Clothes and kites keep the colour forever.
The wind soon picks up even more. Melli rides a gust up a few metres on her first start with the seven until she releases. Nothing happens, but it gets dangerous. At the second start, a gust also sweeps me away, the kite buckles and stalls in the power zone. Released. The peaks are now at 40 knots.
We pull into the Living Forest Lodge, which is quite yoga Amazon-populated. A small river runs through the garden at the edge of the rainforest. In the evening, a horde of howler monkeys come to dinner in the trees 10 metres from the veranda. Hummingbirds buzz around the nectar dispenser while the jungle sings its lullaby.
The next day, the wind is much more constant and cosy at around 18 to 28 knots. In the evening, we visit a magical place, an unfortunately closed open-air disco in the jungle behind the Equus Bar.
On the third day, the wind dies down to five to 22 knots. I fly the Thirteen in tractor mode and still almost need the jet ski rescue after several ten-minute wind holes.
Laguna Arenal is definitely not a world-class spot. If you like panoramic kiting in choppy winds, you can give it a try.
Frank Woelky, born in 1973. Kitesurfer since 1998. Since 2006, I have been combining kitesurfing and web design on trips lasting several months off the beaten track.