South Padre Island

In our experience Padre in late March through May or June and in the late fall is about as good as it gets.
It's not the prettiest place to visit but if you're looking for lots of kiting and lots of bang-for-your-buck it ranks right up there.

It's usually very warm (80's) and the water's in the 80's as well. It's super cheap (super8 starts at about 50 bucks a night on up) and really easy to get to. You can kite in any wind direction so if it blows north one day and south the next you don't have to make some big drive somewhere else. There's shallow flat water stuff on the Laguna side and awesome downwinders to be had in the waves a half mile away on the gulf side.

Lot's of good food. Don't go during spring break-everything costs more and it's a zoo. Even if it's really busy on the island the kite/windsurf beach (on the Laguna side) is private so there's no tourists in your way. It's $20 at the kiteshops for a years pass to access kite beach on the north/south flats which is minutes from town.

Jeff at Airpadre was and probably still is doing a sweet board rental program for 100 bucks for an entire week. You can grab, one at a time, anything that's available from big lightwind boards, surfboards, highwind stuff, and even standup paddle boards if there's no wind. Or I think it's about 30 dollars a day. We just bring one twintip each and then rent surfboards for the gulf side. Way cheaper than flying them and you don't have to worry about 'em getting dinged up by the airlines.

Let us know if you make a plan.

Hey Guys!

Thanks for the info! I forgot you two head down there often... Sweet. Yes, I would love to go and am going to do some research regarding costs and my budget.

So spring break is a no-no... do you know when that is? I'd kinda like to go in Late March or April so as to not miss any good riding days up here in May...

I'll let you know if this materializes…  If not, we’ll catch up this spring.

is in late March or early April-maybe. I think Joel's spring break is the same week as the Montana Kite Rodeo.
Call down there and check around on spring break, the Biker Fest, and The SPI kite rodeo or whatever they call it.

The biker week thing's in the spring around spring break and it's a busy, obnoxious week to be there too.
The kite rodeo will be busier too but it's kind of fun to be there when all the pros are around. It didn't really have much affect on our kiting as all the racing and stuff was at another location.
It was also cool to watch the pro-dudes ripping the surf and they had a huge demo center.

Padre is definetely the place to learn. Bob and Laurel took me there when I was barely able to stay upwind and threw me into the ocean and said do it. Great instructions if you don't know any better.

warm water, warm wind, and cheap. Flights into McAllen TX. was cheaper and 1.5 hr. drive. take one big kite and one small. I took 7.5 10 and 14. The week I was there didn't get to use the 7.5 but it can blow in the spring. I rented a board from South padre kiteboarding $100 for the week and swapped boards every couple days. Furcon realty rented us a small condo for 500 a week. If you stay on the north end of town spring break crowd isn't to bad.

I booked a flight from Helena to SPI April 24 to May 3rd. We've got a room booked on the North part of the Island and a car rented, too. Everyone's invited!!