Springtime on the Outer Banks brings a specific annual migration, mostly from Canada and the northern United States. From a distance, we know where these migrating flocks are from and why they're here, for their vehicles give them away. Their luggage racks are laden with windsurfing equipment, and some tow trailers stacked with boards and sails for every wind condition. In spring and fall, tourism officials estimate that as many as 500 windsurfers a week arrive at the Outer Banks. Dozens of other visitors try the sport for the first time while vacationing in Dare County.

Owing to our position in the Atlantic, plus the area's prevailing winds, shallow sounds, and temperate weather, Hatteras Island is a windsurfing mecca on the East Coast. When the wind whips just right, hundreds of sails soar along the sound and ocean shores, skimming over the salty water like bright butterflies flitting near the beach.

Windsurfing is not an easy sport, although once you get the hang of it, it is one of the most intoxicating experiences imaginable. It's clean and quiet and just as easily lends itself to solitary excursions as it does to group outings. With the proper equipment, sailboarders glide into a sunset or cruise more than 40 mph across choppy breaks. On the Outer Banks, sailboarders can usually find some wind to ride year- round. Windsurfing is permitted any place you can set your sails, except lifeguarded beaches. This sport truly allows the rider to feel a part of the natural surroundings-and it's an incredible rush to fly with the wind.

Canadian Hole

Hatteras Island's Canadian Hole, so named for all of our visitors from the far north, has often been touted in international windsurfing circles as one of the continent's best sailboarding spots. Formed in the early 1960s, Canadian Hole was created after a storm cut an inlet across Hatteras Island, just north of Buxton, and workers dredged sand from the sound to rebuild the roadway. Dredging activities carved troughs just offshore in the Pamlico Sound. The deep depressions, which extend well beyond 5 feet, help create ideal conditions for sailboarders. Additionally, Canadian Hole flanks one of the barrier islands' narrowest landmasses. The walk from ocean to sound is less than five minutes, enabling sailboarders to easily switch between the two bodies of water.

Besides the sound and the Atlantic, Canadian Hole's amenities include a 100space paved lot in which to park big vans and trailers, toilets and showers, a phone booth, and trash cans. The beach at Canadian Hole is much wider than other sound- side stretches of sand-it's about 50 yards wide and accommodates sunbathers, coolers, and plenty of spectators.

Nags Head's soundside beaches also provide areas that are great for sailboarding. The sounds are shallower than at Canadian Hole, and thus safer for beginners. The town of Nags Head has a soundside access at Milepost 16 that's perfect for windsurfers with plenty of parking. Jockey's Ridge State Park's soundside access area also provides parking and a small beach for launching sailboards. In Duck, most people launch on the sound. There are dozens of launch areas on the soundside all along the Outer Banks.

Kitesurfing, or kiteboarding, is a relatively new sport, only a few years old, and it's the latest craze among windsurfers, wake boarders, and surfers alike. The Outer Banks is widely recognized as one of the top places in the world to kitesurf because of the ever-present wind and shallow sounds. Kitesurfers favor the Pamlico Sound off Hatteras Island because it is so wide and has few obstructions to the kite lines. Some daredevil types also kitesurf in the ocean.

Kitesurfing does offer significant advantages over windsurfing: The gear is much more portable, you can do it in a wider range of winds (even low winds), and most people say it's much easier to learn. However, windsurfing is safer. Kite- surfing is a dangerous sport, though it's hard to perceive that danger when you're watching from the shore. The amount of wind power behind the kite is enormous.

For this reason, you cannot simply rent a kite and board at the local outfitters and go on your merry way. You must attain a basic level of certification before you are allowed to rent or buy kitesurfing equipment, and some outfitters don't rent the gear at all, saying the risks are just too great.

Two types of kites are used in kite- surfing: an inflatable kite and a foil kite. The inflatable kite is crescent-shaped, with an inflatable leading edge that allows it to float. This kite is easier to use, is more stable and predictable, and can be used in a broader wind range. The foil kite is flatter and it fills with wind for a more powerful, high-performance ride. The foil kites are a little more unpredictable and are subject to unexpected gusts.

Many sailing shops on the Outer Banks offer kitesurfing lessons, but you should definitely look for responsible retailers who encourage proper training. Windsurfing Hatteras does not rent equipment at all because they feel it is too dangerous for both ill-trained users and any innocent bystanders. They do offer lessons, from beginner to advanced, but after that they encourage kitesurfers to buy their own equipment.

Kitty Hawk Kites Kite Surfing School does rent equipment, but only to people who have completed their Professional Air Sports Association-certified training courses at Carolina Outdoors at MP 16 in Nags Head. It takes about four hours of training to become certified, and then you are able to rent gear. The amount of training time depends on your previous kiting skills. If you're not familiar with kite physics, trainers suggest that you practice with a trainer kite until kite-steering techniques become ingrained in you.

If you want to buy kitesurfing gear, the whole setup will cost you $1,500 or more. If you want to watch or compete in kite- surfing, check out Kitty Hawk Kites Kite- boarding Center at milepost 15 1/2 in Nags Head.

Whether you're looking for a lesson, need a sail or a fin of a different size, or want advice, more than a dozen shops stock windsurfing and kitesurfing supplies, and many provide instructors in season.

Nags Head

The easiest, most adaptable, and most accessible water sports available on the Outer Banks-kayaking and canoeing-are activities people of any age can enjoy. These lightweight paddlecraft are maneuverable, glide almost anywhere along the seas or sounds, and afford adventurous activity as well as silent solitude. They're also relatively inexpensive ways to tour uncharted waterways and see sights not observable from shore.

In recent years, more than a dozen ecotour outlets have opened on the barrier islands. Stores offer everything from rent-your-own kayaks for less than $40 a day to guided, daylong, and even overnight tours around uninhabited islands. With no fuel to foul the estuaries, no noise to frighten wildlife, and no need for a demanding skill level, kayaks and canoes offer a sport as strenuous or as relaxing as you want it to be.

Unlike the closed-cockpit kayaks used in whitewater river runs, most kayaks on the Outer Banks are a sit-on-top style from 7 to 10 feet long. They're molded in brightly colored plastic, are light to carry to a launch site, and are manufactured in one- and two-seat models. A double-blade paddle and a life jacket are the only other pieces of equipment needed, and these are included with rentals and lessons.

Canoes are heavier and harder to get into the water but slightly more stable than kayaks. They seat two or three people and include a more sheltered hull to haul gear or picnic lunches inside. Single-blade paddles, usually two per boat, are needed to maneuver this traditional watercraft.

These sports lend themselves to solitary enjoyment just as easily as group fun. Thrill seekers can splash kayaks through frothy surf in the Atlantic or paddle past the breakers and float alongside schools of dolphin. For more tranquillity, kayakers and canoeists can slip slowly through mysterious, marshy creeks at the isolated Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, explore narrow canals that bigger boats can't access, or slip alongside an uninhabited island in the middle of the shallow sound. There are historical tours around Roanoke Island, nature tours through maritime forests, and self-guided trails with markers winding through a former logging town called Buffalo City on the Dare County mainland.

Unlike other water sports, little to no instruction is needed to paddle a kayak or canoe. It is best to know how to swim, in case you capsize, but since most of the sounds are only a few feet deep, you can walk your way back to shore if you stay in the estuaries-or, at least, jump back in your boat from a standing position. If you fall out of your boat and cannot touch bottom to stand, try to grab onto the canoe or kayak and float to where you can stand.

Different strokes are required for each type of craft. For single kayaks, double- blade paddles are designed to be used by one person. The blades are positioned at opposing angles so you can work across your body with a sweeping motion and minimal rotation and paddle on both sides of the boat. The trick is to get into a rhythm and not dig too deeply beneath the water's surface. Double kayaks are paddled by two people alternating rhythmic strokes on opposing sides of the kayak. Canoeing is done with one person paddling on each side of the boat, if there are two passengers, or a single operator alternating sides with paddle strokes.

Most kayak- and canoe-rental outfits also offer lessons. Even if you prefer to be on your own, rather than with a guided group trip, people renting these watercraft are happy to share advice and expertise. If you have any questions or need directions around the intricate waterways, ask.

The sounds around the Outer Banks are ideal for kayaking and canoeing because they are shallow, warm, and filled with flora and fauna. There are marked pathways at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge; tours through Nags Head Woods; buoys around Wanchese, Manteo, and Colington; and plenty of uncharted areas to explore around Pine Island, Pea Island, Kitty Hawk, Corolla, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and Portsmouth Island. Unlike other types of boats, canoes and kayaks don't require a special launching site.