Water sports that enliven expat life in Mauritius

Whether for spectators  or competitors, Mauritius offers a wide variety of sports activities providing excitement and recreation across the island. Water sports, in particular, could enliven expat life in Mauritius. These pursuits could provide a healthy shot of adrenaline even outside of organized competition.

Windsurfing, an official Olympic sailing event, is big in following in Mauritius. Its waters provide spots just perfect for beginners to learn riding the waves. There are epic wind and wave conditions too off Mauritius’s coast where competitive windsurfers can hone or test their skills.

Windsurfers’ havens north and south

The lagoon at Anse La Raie in the north of the island is a great place for beginners in windsurfing. A reef belt protects this area, and its wind direction is from a side shore. This combo creates an expansive 2.5-kilometre safe confine for windsurfers.

For an alternative site, proceed to Le Morne in the south of the island. There’s a lagoon here also with a reef buffer some 600 metres from the shoreline. The waters in this windsurfing site called “Little Reef” is shallow and thus perfect for learners in this sport.

The more experienced windsurfers have choice spots at Le Morne—“Manawa” and “One Eye.” Because of this duo’s challenging wind and wave conditions, Le Morne was chosen as the host of the 2013 Indian Ocean Windsurfing Championships.

Kite rides of a lifetime

Le Morne is also home to the annual international windsurfing competition Mauritius Attitude Freeride Challenge. The event in its 8^th edition held August 2019 also notably featured kitesurfing, another water sports further spicing up life in Mauritius.

Kitesurfing events, including races and freestyle competition, are likewise hosted just a short distance east of Le Morne at Bel Ombre. For just the pure joy of the ride of a lifetime, kitesurfers turn to the northeastern side of Mauritius. A 10-kilometer lagoon at Belle-Mare is one of their choices in this part of the island. The other is at Ile aux Cerfs, the “Island of the Deer,” an islet inside a coral barrier.

Paddling gains more fans

Canoeing and kayaking have also grown in popularity in Mauritius recently. This thanks largely to Mauritian paddler Terence Benjamin Saramandif, gold medal winner in the canoe slalom event of the 2018 Youth Olympics held in Buenos Aires.

Mauritius was scheduled to host the Canoe Ocean Racing World Cup in June 2020, but it was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. As soon as air travel conditions improve, expect this world competition and other water sports events to reel off and fire up some more adrenaline rush.

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