Dahab: Freestyle, Friendliness, Cats and Sun

If you don't know where to go for your next windsurfing vacation: Go to Dahab, Egypt! We just came back from an amazing trip to this place and pretty much everything about it was great. It was warm, it was sunny, it was windy, the people were amazing, the food was good, ...

There were a few things however that made Dahab an outstanding place to be in my opinion:
1.) Lots of company from other freestylers on the water. And every level - you see people practicing duck jibes, trying their first Vulcans, Loops and Flakas, going for Backloops and Shakas in the waves, and laying down massive Konos and Skopus.
2.) The weather: It is always warm, but never feels hot due to the low humidity. I had plenty of 3.7 and 4.2 days even though it is supposedly windier in the summer. And it is cool enough at night that you can sleep comfortably.
3.) The genuinely nice people. Almost everyone you meet has a genuine friendliness about them that you just don't experience in most other places. People that had a very hard time over the past few years show a happiness and care in a way that you would not see in the USA where people tend to put themselves first, or in Germany where complaining seems to be standard procedure (yes, I know there are exceptions).
4.) The town itself. Dahab has an amazing vibe and is a great place to just hang out, go snorkeling, or go for food. This is to the point where I did not mind a non-windy day and would just look forward to sitting on a beachfront cafe and snorkel to watch the colorful fish. It is also very safe (no idea why they still have some travel warnings up) and last but not least it is also cheap.
5.) The cats. If you like cats this is the place to be. There are soooo many cats! They look great, not like the wild cats in the Caribbean, they come to you and cuddle or play, but they also stay away if you don't want them there.

I would highly recommend staying in an apartment instead of a hotel, just because you get to go out to town for food instead of being stuck in a hotel with the same buffet every night. We stayed with Toby and Fiona from Dahab Holidays in one of their amazing apartments and absolutely loved it! The place is great and Fi and Toby make it superb by being amazing hosts.
We rented our windsurf gear from Dahab Stars, who also made the extra great effort to take care of everything. Ahmed even managed to find a 90l Skate for me - his own board, which he let me use simply because I have the same one at home!

I'll leave you with a few of my favorite pictures from the trip:

Swing in one of the cafes

Relaxing at dinner

I just like this pic

Lemon-mint and strawberry juice at sunset

Afternoon cafe at the water

I love cats!

Where is the fish?

Reef view while snorkeling

Chilling at the 3 pools

Cafe front in Dahab

Our windsurf rental place

Sunset over the red mountains

Outside view of our beautiful apartment

Red mountains and windsurfer

Howdy Texas!

We made it!
After a 2 day driving marathon we arrived on North Padre Island to do what? Windsurf, of course! Having driven for more than 24 hours straight we quickly unloaded some stuff and went to the beach. Wind readings showed 21 mph with temperatures around 23 degrees Celsius (~75F), the water being almost as warm.
Not trusting my instincts after driving so long I asked for advice on what to rig and ended up rigging my 5.0 after seeing people out on what seemed to be mostly between 5.5 and 6.5. I believe the wind picked up just when I rigged, but I should have probably listened to Peter who rigged his 5.6 which would have meant 4.2 or 4.5 for me. I ended up pretty overpowered but was as usual too lazy to re-rig and simply sailed what I was on. Of course this meant lots of sore muscles the next day, but that was curable by going sailing again. The session on the second day was also on the 5.0, but mostly underpowered and involved lots of pumping. And since it it a cold day today here in Texas (16 degrees Celsius = 60 F), this means I get to soak my tired muscles in our private hot tub in a few minutes ;)

Here are a few pictures from what we left behind on Cape Cod, I in the car during a short ferry ride, and of course our hot tub: