Ft. Lauderdle/Miami Windsurfing

[sflynn]

I am planning a trip end of March. Any suggestions for a location to rent equipment on the water? How are the conditions at that time.

Thanks

[michaelingbar]

Try Rickenbacker Causeway on the way to Key Biscayne. There's a rental truck there right on the water for flat water and bump and jump sailing.

Try http://www.sfbsa.com/ for wind forecasts and all else S. Florida.

[geohaye]

The iWindsurf Archives have all the historical wind data you could ever dream of -- to know how a certain spot blows throughout the year. Here's the entire wind history for JAN 2007 at Crandon:

http://www.iwindsurf.com/windandwhere.iws?siteID=255&archiveMonth=1&archiveYear=2007&archiveSearch=Go&Isection=Wind+Archive&regionID=225&geographicalAreaID=0

The real-time dynamic wind map for the Miami area:

http://www.iwindsurf.com/windandwhere.iws?regionID=225&Isection=Gmap+Obs

And here are all of the forecast models on one page for Biscayne-North:
The U.S. government NAM and GFS and iWindsurf's own WRAMS model as well as iWindsurf's WFS model, which combines them all:

http://www.iwindsurf.com/windandwhere.iws?regionID=225&siteID=1827&Isection=Forecast+Graphs

[vertseven]

If you're going to sail in the Biscayne Bay (Rickenbacker cswy) watch out for sea urchin. Especially on a beach start, they're everywhere. If you hit the north end of the parking area (just before the bridge), you're bound to have some dolphins follow your board. Very cool experience.

If the wind is blowing north or south go a bit further from the causeway and hit Virginia Key Park. It's on the north side of the Rickenbacker just past the Seaquarium. There is a nice sand bar a few hundred yards out that with a small swell will launch you nicely.

Another nice wind pocket is in Matheson Hammock Park. It's about 15-20 minutes south of Key Biscayne on the mainland. On a good east wind you can sail from the Key Biscayne causeway to Matheson Hammock and back. On low tide there will be a few very shallow sandbars so be alert or your fin will snap like a twig.

You should be able to score some nice wind in mid-late spring.

Here are some google maps to the areas that I mentioned:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=25.734788,-80.162086&spn=0.01527,0.016394&z=16
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=25.747352,-80.136981&spn=0.015269,0.016394&t=h&z=16
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=25.677038,-80.265126&spn=0.030555,0.032787&z=15