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Kitesurfing (also known as kiteboarding) is definitely something you should consider doing if you live by the sea. It’s fun, an outdoor activity, and is a great full-body workout. It will help improve your core strength, concentration levels, stamina, and reflex.
When buying a watch suitable for kitesurfing, there is a checklist of both essential and non-essential features you want your watch to have. Some of these functions will be a personal choice, such as speakers to play your favorite songs. Other things may be a bit more important such as being waterproof and having a GPS function in case you get lost.
Whilst kitesurfing, you can either take things fast or slow. Ride the waves, or simply catch a moderate sea breeze and cruise along. There are really endless things you can do. Kitesurfing is an activity that can be extremely physically strenuous whilst you’re trying to jump as high as possible from a big wave. Or it can be done early on a Sunday morning whilst you’re listening to some tunes from your smartwatch.
Overall, kitesurfing is a full-body workout that burns between 300-400 calories per hour whilst you have fun. You can go alone, or with friends. Other benefits will include the boost to your immune system whilst being outdoors in the sunlight for hours, alongside the clear and obvious benefits to your mental health. Either way, you look at it, it’s clearly better to be outdoors exercising than stuck inside the house all day.
Table of Contents
Features To Look For In A Watch For Kitesurfing
GPS
GPS is a useful feature since it can tell you just how far you’ve gone, or whether you’re miles away from your car. It’s sometimes easy to get carried away when you’re kiteboarding and end up very far away from where you thought you were.
Having a GPS on your watch solves this problem to a degree as you can monitor your movements and figure out exactly where you are. This will also save you a lot of time if you ever do get lost and need to find out where to go. You won’t waste time traveling in the wrong direction if you’re using a GPS.
Water Resistance
This should go without saying. If you’re going out kitesurfing then you’re going to get wet. It doesn’t matter how water resistant the watch is unless you’re going to use it as a dive watch as well. However, generally greater pressure resistance will cost more money.
Speaker / Songs
Having the option to play music from your smartwatch whilst kitesurfing is an optional extra. Although with that being said, once you’ve done this once it’s almost a necessity. If you’re a kitesurfer who likes to go out for an aggressive ride and jump a lot – then this feature is not for you.
If you’re the kind of person who likes to cruise along or do somewhat long-distance kitesurfing. Having a smartwatch that can play music on a speaker is great as it will keep you occupied and help you relax.
Heart Rate Monitor
Heart rate monitors and other fitness tracking apps are more or less standard for high-level smartwatches in modern day. They all vary in degrees of accuracy, but if you’re buying from a prestigious company such as Garmin or Suunto, you know it’s going to be pretty much on the money.
You are able to track your heart rate while you are kitesurfing, as well as look at your fluctuations during and after you’re done with your session. Having data available to you can be interesting as well as useful if you’re looking to improve your fitness or simply monitor your progress.
Weather Tracking
Many smartwatches are equipped with the ability to forecast weather and/or a barometer. A barometer measures atmospheric pressure and can alert you to any sudden pressure increases or drops.
This may be helpful if you live in a particularly tropical climate where the weather can change very quickly. If you saw that there was a 50% chance of a storm before you went out in the morning. This feature can let you know whether that storm will actually come or not and give you an advanced warning.
Battery Life
Obviously the longer the battery life, the better. If you’re going out kiteboarding for several hours, ideally you want something that can do the job for the full amount of time. It should be noted that whenever you’re using a GPS on a smartwatch, this drains the battery considerably faster than without having it switched on.
Therefore you may want to consider your use of using a GPS 100% of the time whilst kiteboarding.
Ability To Make Phone Calls
You’re probably not going to be doing any business deals when you are kitesurfing, but who knows? Really though, the ability to make a phone call is good in case of an emergency. Even if you know that you won’t get into trouble yourself. It is always helpful to have a waterproof phone ability within your watch as it could help someone out who is in need.
Payment Options
Having payment and card options on your smartwatch is great for kitesurfing. Whilst you will never use it during the actual activity itself. You may find yourself back on the beach and thirsty whilst your wallet sits miles away in your car.
This gives a nice option to purchase things securely, whilst at the same time not having to bother taking your wallet kitesurfing with you.
9 Best Watches For Kitesurfing
Garmin Forerunner 645 Music
The Garmin 645 is a smartwatch designed for running but is actually 100% ideal for kitesurfing. This is mostly due to its variety of features. Firstly, it’s water-resistant to 5 meters, so obviously you can’t go diving with this watch, but it’s good enough if you fall in the ocean. Secondly, it offers a GPS mode with up to 5 hours of battery life, this is very solid for a smartwatch.
Two of the bonus features are that you’re able to store up to 500 songs on this watch and connect it to bluetooth headphones. This is ideal for anyone that likes to listen to music whilst kiteboarding. Lastly, the watch has Garmin pay, so if you want to buy anything, you don’t need to take your wallet into the ocean with you.
Check The Price Of Garmin Forerunner 645 Watches On Amazon
Nixon Base Tide Pro
The Nixon base tide pro is a watch purposely built for watersports, specifically surfing. Unlike the other watches, this watch is not a smartwatch, but instead a super tough digital watch that has been made with one purpose in mind.
The best feature of this watch is the pre-programmed tides, which are accompanied by sunrise and sunset times. Overall, the watch contains data for over 550 beaches worldwide, so you can rest assured if you live in a developed country, your location is going to be in here.
Compared with smartwatches, the base tide is significantly cheaper. So if you were looking for a tough watch for kitesurfing and don’t want to spend too much money, the base tide pro is ideal.
Check The Price Of Nixon Base Tide Pro Watches On Amazon
Rip Curl Surf Watch
Of course, if you’ve surfed or been anywhere near a beach on a sunny day, you will have heard of Rip Curl. To start with a disclaimer, this watch is pretty much only worth buying if you have an iPhone. You can use the watch without a phone, but it doesn’t sync well with android, so you will not be able to view your session data.
Overall, this watch is a more expensive version of the Nixon base tide pro, although there is a GPS included with this watch. So you’re looking at around a $100 difference for a GPS, which is a fair price and will depend on whether you want to spend the extra money or not.
Check The Price Or Rip Curl Watches On Amazon
Apple Watch Series 5
Apple watches are not made with kitesurfing in mind, but are certainly useful if you’re after a smartwatch. Not only this, but Apple watches are obviously equally as useful when you’re not on the water and are helpful in day-to-day life.
The features you will get the most out of on this watch are its weather forecast functions, ability to listen to music, GPS and mobile payments. All of these applications are very useful when considering a watch for kitesurfing, as discussed earlier.
Lastly, the Apple watch gives you the ability to make and receive phone calls. Not something you’ll do every time you kitesurf, but if there is ever an emergency, this is a great option to have.
Check The Price Of Apple Smart Watches On Amazon
Suunto Ambit 3
The Suunto Ambit is a classic fitness watch equipped with 100 meters water resistance and a heart rate monitor. This is pretty much as you’d expect from the Finnish dive watch manufacturer. As an ABC watch(Altimeter, Barometer, Compass), you won’t get much use out of the altimeter kitesurfing, although the barometer and compass will certainly come in handy.
In summary, the Suunto Ambit is one of the best GPS watches you can buy for kitesurfing. It boasts up to a 30-hour battery life which blows away its competitors. The only drawback is that it doesn’t have other features such as contactless payments or the ability to play music.
Check The Price Of Suunto Watches On Amazon
Garmin Fenix 5x
As one of the most expensive watches on the entire list, you would expect a lot from the Garmin Fenix 5x. It certainly does deliver. For a start, this smartwatch can only really be compared with the Apple watch, since it offers so many other features and is a watch not used purely for kitesurfing. Available in over 10 different color schemes, it is made of titanium, which is both lightweight and hypoallergenic.
In terms of kitesurfing, it has everything you could ever want such as a GPS, heart rate monitor, weather reports, contactless payments and can store 500 songs which are playable through bluetooth. The watch can also last 8 hours in GPS mode which is very solid for a smartwatch.
Check The Price Of Garmin Fenix Watches On Amazon
Amazfit Bip U – Budget Choice
Undoubtedly the best value-for-money watch you will find for kitesurfing. The Amazfit Bip U is a fitness watch created by an offshoot of Amazon – Amazfit. For well under $100, you really cannot go wrong. The watch does not have too many features compared to the other watches, but those are 5x the price of this one.
Overall it does offer great value with a built-in GPS, heart rate monitor, and the ability to read emails. You won’t just use this watch for kitesurfing, but even if you did. It’s so cheap that it doesn’t really matter. Even if you lost it in the sea, you wouldn’t be too mad considering the price.
Check The Price Of Amazfit Bip U Watches On Amazon
Fitbit Versa 2
Fitbit are obviously best known for their fitness watches. The Versa 2 is a nice combination of both a fitness watch and something that has a few more features. This is an ideal middle-of-the-range budget watch for kitesurfing. It doesn’t have as many features as some of the other watches but is around 50% cheaper than an Apple watch.
For this price, you’ll get a GPS, heart rate monitor and weather reports. You’re also able to store 300 songs on this watch, which is about 40% less than some of the more expensive smartwatches. Given that it’s around half the price of these watches, I’d say that’s a pretty fair deal.
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G-Shock GBX100-7
Everyone is aware of Casio G-shock watches and how tough they are. This watch has literally been tested by running it over with a truck and still surviving, so it will have no trouble kitesurfing.
The difference between this particular model and other G-shock watches is that the GBX100-7 was specifically designed for surfing. It has 200 meters water resistance and is pre-programmed with tide graphs and sunrise/set locations. The watch also has all the other standard G-shock features such as stopwatch alarms and general toughness.
Overall this watch is a real bargain compared to the other digital kitesurfing watches. It is quite a bit cheaper than the Rip Curl model and equally as good.
Check The Price Of G-Shock Watches On Amazon
