First let me start off by saying that I’ve visited 5 countries this year chasing wind and setting up tours. Each has been quite different and special in its own way, but Greece has a certain beauty and flare, I’ve never seen before in a country. We teamed up with Dimitri Maramenides to run the tour as he’s a Greek native and of course a kiteboarding pro, so he knows all the best spots, including desolate beaches kiters rarely find.
We began in Athens with a group of 8 all coming from different parts of the world. We had an Israeli, a Floridian, an Ohioan (yes, that’s a word, I just looked it up), a Frenchie, two Californians and myself. Lots of different personalities and by far the most animated group I’ve been a part of to date.
After arriving in Athens, in pure Dimitri style, we went directly to kite about 25 minutes from the airport at Loutsa. The launch and land area wouldn’t be called the safest as there was a small beach with a ton of rocks, but we made due. Luckily we had just missed some nuking wind of 30+ knots in the region, so we were happy that it blew 15-20. The guys did a long downwinder from Marathon to Loutsa kiting between ferry boats that were coming from the islands, The distance was between 20-25 km and lasted about 2 hours… They were dead tired after this to say the least.
We stayed in Athens that night at Dimitri’s house and awoke early to catch the ferry to Paros. After 4 hours, we rolled into Pounda where the KPWT had just ended a few days before. We spent 3 days with the Paros Kite Center guys and took advantage of their beautiful kite spot. This was seriously paradise. Glassy, flat, crystal blue water, with Antiparos (another island) as the backdrop, it was just breathtaking. The wind didn’t come up until noonish everyday so we got friendly with the locals and visiting kiters. Dimitri brought his new Skywalker boards to Greece so everyone had a blast trying them out. The beachgoers were super considerate and helped out which made me like the community and area even more.
The wind ranged from 15-25 knots during the afternoons so our kites ranged from 9-16 meter. At night we went into town and had many family style dinners as a group. Greek salad, Souvlaki (garlic spread), Tzatziki (yogurt, cucumber and garlic dip), Moussaka (the national dish of Greece), and Gyros were present at almost every meal. We stayed at Dimitri’s summerhouse that had a spectacular view of Antiparos.
After a few days the wind was dying down so we made our way 1 1/2 hours to Mykonos. Mykonos is the most incredible island. You could tell upon entering that this is the party island, lots of youngsters romping about. Dimitri took us to the most amazing spot that is more famous for windsurfing but since the wind had been less than usual, we were able to kite. We had the entire place to ourselves. I couldn’t believe how gorgeous this area was. We visited a few beaches in Mykonos that are all superb for kiting. At one point I was completely overpowered on my 6 meter. It was fantastic!
The wind blew from 18-25 during our stay. Our hotel was luckily right in front of a kite beach where the sunset sessions blew everyone away, (literally). By night we traveled into town and took advantage of the open-air restaurants and of course dipped into the party scene. After a few days in Mykonos we headed back to Paros for a day and that was the only day of no wind, so we headed back to Athens to visit the Acropolis, a must if you are coming to Greece for the first time. It was amazing to see the city and how crowded downtown Athens was.
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