Okanagan

[drummermom]

Anyone know anything about the kiting scene up there? How often it’s kite-able, average conditions, season length etc. Thanks in advance.

[Michael]

Anyone know anything about the kiting scene up there? How often it’s kite-able, average conditions, season length etc. Thanks in advance.

I can't say much about kiting there but the north and south Okanagan are very different. My mom lives in the north near Vernon and I spend every summer there. Up north I have never seen a kiter, actually I'm the only person on that end of the lake that I've seen windsurf as the wind is not very friendly. The south has a nice thermal in summer and I know there are some local kiters down there. I would say the season is form around May to October but the water gets really cold fast in fall and doesn't warm up until June. Nicola lake has a lot of kiters and if you are near Kelowna it's not that far.

[JonathanP]

I think most of the kiting is either by the airport on skaha lake during southerly storm winds or south of Kelowna on Okanagan lake. Swell probably gets pretty good. I wind foiled on a surprisingly strong south wind from naramata this summer and the swell was great.

[Brian C]

There’s a fairly new Facebook group called Okanagan Kiteboarding & Windsurfing that would be a good info resource. I have seen several posts about kiting at Rotary Beach in Kelowna. Looks like mostly spring and fall frontal winds there, whereas they get thermals on Skaha and Nicola.