Kitesurfing atPraia de Chaves (Boavista)

A vast wild beach on Boa Vista's west coast, wedged between the airport and the big resorts: miles of open sand facing the ocean, where space is never in short supply. Close to shore the water stays flat enough to learn; further out the swell builds and the wind blows harder than at Sal Rei.

Chaves is Boa Vista's ocean face: an oversized beach staring due west, where the island tips from calm lagoon to open sea. The wind comes in from the northeast, side-shore to side-offshore depending on where you stand, and it's usually more nervous and gusty than in Sal Rei bay — enough that the schools keep beginners in the flat strip by the shore, or take them out by boat in front of the hotel. Further out the swell builds waves of 1.5-3m a few hundred metres off, and in winter a powerful shore-break slams onto the sand. It's a spot with two faces: a supervised learning workshop near the shore, and a wave playground for the confirmed once you're past the break.