westerly winds in Dublin

tringlarido

Hey all,

I am going to move to Dublin this year for job. I'm also a big fan of kite surf, and can't wait to get there
is it possible to go on the water with westerly winds ? I found somewhere they were predominant. This seems to be very off shore to me.. On the other hand, I found in forums, that u can go kite surf very often. How is that possible ?!

Appart from sutton and dollymount are there other spots in dublin area?
can u go in sandymount for exemple ?
is the crowd manageable ?

cheers
ed

Kace

Welcome !!

Kitesurfing in Dublin is indeed great, with some of the biggest city beaches in Europe. However when it's blowing a westerly Dublin is not the place. You will need to be hopping in a car to drive West or South for a couple of hours in order to find a safe kiteable spot in these conditions.

ted1

Sutton is cross shore on a westerly but its gusty as it's coming off the land

2 to 2.5 hour drive from Dublin for a good beach for a pure W.
SW (Dollymount) and NW (Sutton, Booterstown) can be kited in Dublin though.
Best directions for Dublin are S to SE. E and NE good too.
Poolbeg is generally better than Sandymount yet is only 5 mins by car away.

tringlarido

thanks all,
"2 to 2.5 hour drive from Dublin for a good beach for a pure W" which one is the nearest ?
all right so it's only the pure West that doesn't work. I guess it gives frequent opportunities to go out there.
Oh I read different things about sandy mount, some say that when it's S wind, the wind is usually stronger in dollymount.
Well, I'll have a better picture when I'll be there, can't wait
Are they any waves sometimes ?

ImportMeHappy

Rosses Point in Sligo (http://lsdkiteboarding.com/beaches/rosses-point) is where I tend to go for westerlies, I live on west side of the City so reachable in 2 hours.

Have a look at google maps and you'll see that Dollymount runs south west to north east, so a southerly is cross on. A southerly in Sandymount is closer to cross-off than cross-on so the wind is going to cut up and be less powerful, as Glasso says just go to Poolbeg if your staying southside.

Use this site for high-res local dublin forecast for the next 24 hours..

http://www.belgingur.is/opna/en/1/gfs/dublin/1/vindur

Rosses Point and Streedagh in Sligo are good options.
Lahinch in Clare also.

If the wind is S to SW and just about get-outabble in Dublin e.g. 13/14 knots and it's a south better off going that bit further and going to Dollymount as it will be a bit stronger than Poolbeg and could make the difference between getting out or not. S will get a bit blocked by the coastline. SE to E pretty much the same strength at Dolly and Poolbeg. Sandymount only works well 1 hour either side of high tide and in a decent stregth wind - preferably a wind with a lot of E in it.