Colombie — Cabo de la Vela (Guajira)

Intermediate to expert. The bay is flat, shallow — you stand for hundreds of metres, making it a dream freestyle ground. But beware: here the trade blows hard (often 25-35 knots) and, above all, it comes off the land — it's a broadly offshore wind, made rideable only by the bay's shallow depth (read the safety carefully). It's not a spot to learn on alone, and the isolation demands self-reliance. A few schools and Wayuu camps teach.

Cabo de la Vela is windy much of the year (some say over three hundred wind days), with a core from December to April (powerful north-east trade, 25-35 knots), a gustier lull in May-June and a quiet spell in October-November. The dominant wind comes from the north-east — it blows off the land toward the bay, so with an offshore component: that's what makes the water so flat, and what demands vigilance (see safety).

You reach Cabo de la Vela from Riohacha, by several hours of 4WD track across the Guajira desert — a journey in itself. No reliable running water or network: you stay in Wayuu rancherías (hammocks, local food). The bay is flat and shallow, turquoise; the environment is desert, windswept and raw, in the territory of the Indigenous Wayuu community, whose customs must be respected.