It’s a beautiful sight! Bright colourful sails zipping along the blue Caribbean Sea, sailors carving their sailboards, trying fast turns and high jumps. When a windsurfer goes down, the beach crowd searches the crests and troughs of the waves with anticipation, hoping for a quick water-start and reassurance that the boardsailor is not hurt and that he will live on to try again. Windsurfing adds just a little bit of drama and excitement to an otherwise lazy day on the beautiful white sands of the Silver Sands Beach in Jamaica.
There are many great windsurfing spots in Jamaica. Why? The main ingredient for a good day’s windsurfing is steady reliable wind. And in Jamaica it blows onshore, normally from the Northeast on the sandy beaches of the North Coast. Combine that with clean warm water which means sailors can go barefoot and without wetsuits, making the sport a much more “raw and with nature” experience. Tides and currents are minimal. Experienced sailors scope out the location, noting where there may be reefs and rocks, and stay far from them.
Geographically, Silver Sands is one of the better windsurfing locations in Jamaica as it sticks out a bit more into the path of the trade winds. With less shading from the wind, it is a windier location than most beaches, even those nearby. It’s also drier and the interior hills are set further back from the shore than many other areas. This means the daytime heating lasts longer and when the wind rushes up into the interior hills to make rain, it is further away, having less of an effect on the windy conditions on the coast at Silver Sands. Anyone who knows Jamaica really well, can attest to the afternoon rains in Ocho Rios, Portland, and Negril. Silver Sands is spared these afternoon rains most of the time, which means stronger winds and more time for windsurfing.
However with less protection from the onshore breeze and huge gaps in the coral reef, located a few thousand feet from the shore, the water quickly becomes choppy making Silver Sands a better location for intermediate to advanced boardsailors. This does not mean that beginners cannot learn this exhilarating watersport at Silver Sands. They can, but it requires starting early in the morning when the sea is flat, before the trade winds build up and make conditions exciting for the more advanced.
July is high wind season at Silver Sands and by midday conditions are usually ripe for experienced boardsailors, meaning there is no chance of uphauling in the choppy waters. Since there is no windsurfing school or rental facility at Silver Sands, windsurfers who make it there with their own equipment have a fabulous time, as there are no crowds and no jockeying for launch positions on the beach.
For the windsurfing enthusiast traveling with friends and family, Silver Sands is a dream vacation come true. As not everyone in the party may be into windsurfing, one has to consider what the non-windsurfers will do other than spend lazy days on the beach. Silver Sands is great for other water sports with a nearby coral reef for some exciting snorkeling. And the Silver Sands villa resort is located halfway between Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, so it close to dozens of popular visitor attractions.
By Prem Chadeesingh, who has been windsurfing at Silver Sands since 1985.
