Masirah

About four years ago I saw Janek and Mike travel to Oman. It looked like a crazy adventure with remote spots – the ultimate escape where kiting is the main priority and adventure awaits – so I knew I needed to visit. This year marked our third visit there, to Masirah Island, an island an hour and a half away from the mainland by ferry.

Masirah is a relatively small island with very few tourists, but an absolutely beautiful place with wind almost every single day – just like Brazil in that aspect, but nowhere near as crowded with kiters and tourists. The shots we took with Ahmed show some of Masirah’s spots – fishing harbors, white beaches with blue water, and mangrove spots with beautiful flat water and abandoned ships in the background. It’s more raw and untouched than any place we visit all year and that’s why we keep coming back.

We usually stay on the northwest of the island at the Orjan apartments. These are built right next to a sports center where you find a gym, football field, pool, bowling alley, pool tables and many more activities. There are about five decent restaurants and some of them serve incredible lobster. The price of these always depends on how many were caught that day so you must be sure to ask the restaurant for a price upfront. The choice of food is not the most diverse but I don’t think that should hold you back from visiting. 

We visit three to four main spots on the island. Our favorite is in the harbor. It’s often not possible to kite here because there are fishermen who dock their boats on the side of the pier. It’s also quite a mission to get in the water here as you have to jump off the pier to enter or have to ride out to the ocean, clear the harbor and ride back in to the spot!

Our second favorite place to kite is the small pier, a somewhat smaller spot with loads of rocks on the entry and less space than in the harbor. The third spot we like to visit is called Monkey Bay. This is about 45 minutes away from our apartment and the last bit of the drive is along the beach. We always rent a 4×4 so we won’t get stuck, but if you’re careful, a normal two-wheel drive car would do. There’s also a wave spot on the southeast side of the island and some other spots on the southwest of the island but we found the wind was usually lighter there.

Other than kitesurfing and windsurfing there’s not that many other things the island has to offer, well except for beautiful views, plenty of camels, incredible white beaches and Caribbean-like blue water, and of course the beautiful Omani culture. So for sure it’s somewhere we will keep missioning back to…