Riumar: Spain Is More Than Just Tarifa

Riumar offers a well-rounded kitesurfing experience on par with the best of locations you can think of. It offers just enough to demonstrate that there is certainly more to Spain than just Tarifa.

Autumn 2021 and our team is figuring out where to go for our Autumn trip. Greece, Sardinia, Denmark. As the departure date approached, these destinations became unappealing to us. In Greece, the thermals seemed to have shut down earlier this year, with fronts, and occasional rain. We’ve seen this before. Back then, to find a ride we drove two thousand extra kilometers than planned and we had to go back and forth for two days.

Sardinia looked tempting. But when the 20th or so Czech asked me if we were going to Sardinia too, plus what I saw in the FB discussions, I figured out that it would be crowded as hell. We’ve been there before. Once in September, 40 Czechs gathered in Raches, Greece. All friends, great parties and dinners etc., but it was hell in the water!

I dismissed Denmark because of the kids and the freezing. After all, they like to swim on trips. Then Jitia announced that her friend was in Portugal with the kids. I probed the spots, looked at the forecast a bit and it was clear. But I don’t want to write about Portugal today, that will come later. Today I want to write about a spot just outside Barcelona, where we stopped on the way.

You can find more detailed information, maps, forecasts and other important facts in our listings for Trabucador and also for Riumar.

RIUMAR – KITESURFING COSTA BRAVA

Several times had Honza Chasak, known as The Spaniard, invited me to come and see them. He and Monica and their daughter have lived in the small village of Riumar for a long time. When Honza and I met in the past, he told me about the daily thermals, the lagoons with shallow water and waves, the Mistral that goes until noon, then stops and turns around for the southern thermals. I have to admit that it sounded far-fetched me and I had Honza in the Kiter Storyteller category. Only now, a few years later, do I find it all to be true to the letter. I hereby deeply and sincerely apologize to Honza.

Riumar is a village on the delta of the Ebro River (known to fishermen), which runs far out into the Mediterranean Sea. Due to the fact that the river brings sand, which it deposits at the mouth, the whole area is flat and sandy with lots of lagoons. There are two important ones. At the north-eastern end of the delta the lagoon at Riumar and on the southern side of the delta the lagoon (beach) of Trabucador.

KITESPOT RIUMAR

We started at the beach marked Kitespot 1. It’s a wave spot, but the waves don’t break until near the shore. Due to the gradual bottom and shallow water about 50m from the shore, the waves break slowly, so there are rather smaller waves just off-shore. Riders can easily ride away from the shore even in strong winds, not having to overcome a wall of big waves on the way out from the beach.

However, further out into the sea there are some pretty decent waves. About 200m upwind of Kitespot 2 is where even two meter waves are found. They are pretty flat and packed with the right wind strength. I, as a freestyle lurker unfamiliar with waves, got pretty shaken at times. And that was just riding through the place. I only stayed for a few turns (or whatever it’s called 😊) and off to the lagoon.

LAGOON RIUMAR

It’s rideable in all winds from Northwest to Southeast. It has an elongated shape (about 800m in length, 50 to 100m in width) from West to East, so the longest part of it is ridden on North winds. The water is deepest (chest-level) at the North shore, becoming shallow (even up to the ankles) at the south. So the rider bounces and starts the trick on the depth, hits medium deep (about waist deep) and if you goes down a bit more, you have to watch out for complete shallowness. No need to worry though, there is plenty of room to practice hard tricks.

This is the Riumar lagoon in a southerly wind. Most of the time it is ridden on Mistral, i.e. in the opposite wind direction.

We rode the Riumar lagoon outside the main season (October 20). There were about 5 kites on the whole spot during the week. For the weekend the forecast called for a strong Mistral and there were about 50 kites on the spot. I didn’t even want to go to the lagoon, from a distance it looked crowded. Besides, I was afraid that the locals would immediately flush me out. When I got there, my chin dropped. There were 5 kiters in the lagoon. The others were splashing in the waves and chop. Plus, there was a relaxed, friendly atmosphere, no one was pushing, no trolls. Plenty of room for tricks, it was cool. I haven’t experienced that in Greece for a long time.

Entrance to the lagoon from Kitespot 1

Upwind of the lagoon there is a huge shoal, hundreds of meters away from the shore. It’s far downwind in this photo. There are small waves with flats in between. Nice place to play if one is tired of big waves or flats.

LAGOON TRABUCADOR

Located on the southern part of the river delta, so all South to eastbound winds are rideable there. Supposedly the beach used to be lively, free, you could park and sleep at will, even a short distance from the water. Those days are long gone, however, and the place is over-organized for my taste. Bars everywhere in case a driver accidentally misses a spot. There’s parking in the lots, cars have to be out by 8:00 p.m. Even in the off-season, the cops come to check it out at 7:50. Even in the off-season, I was surprised at how many cars there were, but most of them were lurkers and tourers. There were about 30 kites on the water, but the lagoon area is huge. For practical matters, I encountered five riders who stayed within 200m of me.

Trabucador is a long and narrow peninsula running from the Northeast to the Southwest. To the east of the peninsula is the open sea. On the seaward side there is depth, waves and chop. When the wind blows, there is a decent current. It’s a spot for masochists. However, you can go there and I must mention it.

On the other side of the spit is the lagoon. There is shallow water around the edges of the lagoon, so you can get to the shore if you have problems. In the middle the lagoon is deep and surprisingly with only a small chop. It is an ideal spot for kite hydrofoil and wingfoil.

Of course, Jitia and I were again shredding freestyle at the shore, where there is a perfect flat. A big bonus for princesses and shampooers who like to take pictures is the 50 meter pier. From it you can really take pictures within a few meters. When we went there, there was a shallow area just before we came under the pier. It was about five meters by five meters. About 5cm of water, the fins were scraping the bottom. So we either had to jump over it and then quickly prepare for the trick, or go around from the bottom, then one went out for a shot, or go around from the top, then the head would come out a few inches from the pier. Yeah, life is a struggle 😊.

South wind went lightly over the shore all afternoon. The shore, although low, was still affecting the wind. I was expecting it to be super-mega-stable. It wasn’t. But what the heck, compared to the wind during the Rozkoš race it was a breeze. I decided not to grumble. I just rode what was there and told myself I was enjoying it. After all, I hadn’t ridden in winds like that in a long time. And I guess that’s why we were rewarded with a real hairdryer in the evening. Around 5pm the wind turned from the southwest and went right along the shore. That was a big reward. A wind comparable to the best Greek winds. If the sun hadn’t set, we’d still be riding there. That’s why I know the cops got there at 7:50. They made sure I packed quickly and made sure I got out in time. But they didn’t even think to shine a light on me 😊.

WIND IN THE RIVER DELTA

Mistral (northwest) is the most common wind in this area. You can see that by the trees that grow there. They are all bent towards the southeast. The Mistral starts at night, is strongest in the morning and fades around noon. Then there are said to be two possible developments:

A) Either the Mistral blows all afternoon until the evening, when it goes completely dormant. The whole afternoon is then great for big kites or foils. That’s how we had it. After a morning splashing in the lagoon, I enjoyed a full afternoon of foiling right off the launch beach.

B) The other option is that the Mistral will lay up from one minute to the next between noon and 2pm. Like flicking a switch. It doesn’t blow for a while and then all of a sudden a southerly thermal starts blowing, completely the opposite direction. Mostly weak to come back or launch the kite from the water, but strong enough to swim the kite to shore. This happens more often in Spring and Summer.

This situation is very dangerous if you ride on the Mistral far out at sea. Honza says he calls 112 about five times a season to have rescuers go out and fish out an unfortunate rider a kilometer from shore in the open sea. When I went to the lagoon, he always warned me. If the wind drops, don’t go straight across the sea, even if it looks short, fast, and that nothing can happen. Go along the shore instead. It’s worse to ride upwind, but you’ll still be in the shallows and you’ll reach the shore if anything happens. I had no reason not to believe and I always did as told.

Tramontana wind is from the north to northeast. It acts like the Mistral. Compared to the Mistral, it tends to be weaker, a little more stable and supposedly doesn’t switch off from one minute to the next. In Tramontana, the path to the lagoon is a little more upwind. On the other hand, the ride back is super downwind.

The Levante easterly wind is said to blow twice a year, more so in the winter. It’s not much, kite-wise uninteresting.

Garbi is a South wind. It can be frontal or thermal in the summer. Thermal comes on in the afternoon and is more for larger kites or foils. The best place to ride a south wind is Trabucador. It can also be ridden on the lagoon and offshore at Riumar, but it gets very choppy as the wind goes over the shore. Further off-shore it is cleaner, but there you have to watch the shallows very well as you are riding on a clear off-shore and the next shore is 50kms away.

What can one do in Riumar when it is not blowing? Fishing, paddleboarding or go to Honza and Monika’s beach pub for a drink or a meal. Monika is an excellent chef, it’s worth it. We had the privilege ourselves and it was delicious 😊.

You can find the contact details of Honza and Monica on their website snowkite.cz

When you go to Tarifa again, split your trip and stop by Riumar. You will definitely be satisfied. We’re surely coming back. And one extra bonus: the drive from the French border on the AP-7 to the site is free of charge. They’ve recently turned off the toll booths on this highway, so it’s toll-free. However, what to watch out for is parking and sleeping in cars. Unfortunately, they’ve instituted a ban on overnight parking at the beaches and are strictly policing it in the off-season. But you can find places, for example on Google maps.

Aloha and the next report will be from a different time zone.

The article was translated with the author’s permission from Mystic Blog.

You can buy perfect kiting equipment from Mystic and North in Czech Mystic Store. Delivery all over the Europe without any problems.

Author: Spots4Kite

The team behind Spots4Kite.