Kenya's coastline offers water sports lovers a place to shine

Maila Izi, a 22-year-old student at a music school in Hamburg, Germany, has always been a fan of water sports since she was a child. Over the past years, she has been to several countries, such as France and Spain, to learn new skills including wave surfing and windsurfing, but she thinks Diani offers the best water sports experiences.

"This is the first time I have visited but the sea is the most beautiful that I have ever seen," she said. "The sand beach is so wide, the water is so warm and I think it is the perfect place for kitesurfing. It's the most beautiful beach I have ever been on."

Having arrived in Diani with her parents for a May holiday, Izi decided to learn kitesurfing, a water activity that uses a kite and surfboard, which is a relatively new sport that has gained increasing popularity on Kenya's coast in recent years. She enrolled in a class that offered three hours of training, which included basic theory instruction and flying kites of different sizes, the largest measuring 10 square meters.

"I have always wanted to try kitesurfing," she said. "Since I am in the perfect place for the sport, why not try it here?"

Goodluck Shamala, the founder of Kenya Kitesurfing School, a training institute in Diani, said kitesurfing, which used to be considered an extreme sport, has in recent years become more popular among tourists with many coming from countries as far as Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States to experience it.