Okay. It’s a beautiful beach. But more importantly, it’s a beautiful windy beach. How windy? Well, let’s just say that you won’t need to delve too deep into your quiver, a 4.2 and 4.7 will cover your requirements admirably for the entire season. Not only that, but it’s damn regular. This means that you can party at night and wake up at 10.00am for a leisurely breakfast because you know that at 11.00am the Brazilian wind machine switches on full power until sunset.
It’s nothing to do with luck, either. There have been many scientific studies made of the Ceará wind machine and, in a nutshell, this area of Brazil is the main landing point for the trade winds that sweep the Atlantic Ocean. And the even better news is that these trade winds are generated by the Earth’s rotation, so as long as the Earth is spinning, you’ll be sailing…
This type of trade wind spot operates to a different logic than others. The natural expected status is ‘windy’ (since the Earth is spinning), and the only thing that can disturb this logic is an added influence, such as low pressure generated by a rainstorm, for example.
Jericoacoara and Icaraizinho are acclaimed as 99.9% wind spots because both sit in this very warm and dry part of the Brazilian coast. Rainfall from June to January is almost zero, and even in the low season (February to June) the number of sunny – and therefore windy – days is still quite high. While the busiest months are October and November, the locals say that if you’re into wave riding, or interested in learning the art, the best months are December and January, as they give the best combination of wind and waves together.