Martinique — Pointe du Bout

A supervised spot first and foremost: ideal terrain to start out or progress, but almost always with the school, because access is by boat and the wind blows off the land near the shore. On the sandbank — knee-deep flat water with the safety boat alongside — conditions are perfect for first boards and water-starts. Going solo is a different story: you need to be comfortable, hold a confident upwind line, and never let yourself drift out into the bay. Beginner with a school: yes. Random rider showing up alone on the beach: no, this isn't a launch-from-shore spot.

Prime season runs December to April, when the east-to-northeast trade wind settles in steady and strong. The bay has an edge the windward coast doesn't — a venturi effect: the wind accelerates over the Lamentin plain before funnelling into the bay, often making Pointe du Bout windier than the Atlantic side. September–October goes soft (hurricane season, weak trades). Water sits at 28°C year-round, a rash vest is enough, sunscreen is mandatory.

You don't launch from the shore here, and that's the thing to grasp first. The starting point is the Baz'Notik base at Hôtel Carayou, on the Pointe du Bout peninsula in Trois-Îlets (Caribbean side, inside Fort-de-France bay). You rig in the coconut grove, feet in the water, then the school boat drops you on a sandbank about 4 km out in the middle of the bay: shallow, flat water, clean wind. That shuttle is what makes the spot rideable — without it, the shore is a sheltered tourist beach, not a kite zone. Pointe du Bout is a busy marina: launches, sailboats, and above all the ferry navette to Fort-de-France running roughly every 15 minutes. So you stay inside the zone marked out by the club, clear of the shipping channels, never in the boat lanes. Access to the water is supervised: go through the school — it's the only simple, safe way to ride here.