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Water Sports in Dubai

For an adrenaline-fuelled splish-splashing time!

Dubai can cast you off into a completely new avenue with a wide array of water sports activities, thanks to its many golden beaches and sparking blue waters. As a first-time visitor to the city, you will be amazed at the types of water sports on offer and will wonder how to fit them all in a day. Here are some of the best spots to hit the waves and the best water sports activities in Dubai.

The best way to start your tryst with the Arabian Sea is to go sailing. Apart from being a perfect water sports activity that can relax you, sailing a boat or a yacht also offers a sensory experience and many photo opportunities along the way. There are plenty of sailing clubs and centres located across the city where you can learn to sail or go sail racing. Dubai Offshore Sailing Club (DOSC), Coastal Safety and Jebel Ali Sailing club, are some of the places you can set your sails. Canoeing and Kayaking also offers plenty of opportunities to explore the coastline of the city. 

Dubai will take you by surprise with some great spots if you are in the mood to challenge some waves. The surf scene in the city has been growing since the last decade and the most popular surf beach is the Sunset Beach. The beach is situated next to the iconic Burj Al Arab and hosts the Middle East’s only surfing contest, Sunset Open every year during March. The surfable waves of the beach are unlike any other in the city and the location offers plenty of photo opportunities to capture the beautiful silhouette of the Burj Al Arab against the setting sun and an ideal place to catch all the surfing action. You can also take surfing lessons from Surf School Arabia on Al Khan Beach and Surf House Dubai on Sunset Beach can help you get on your feet and ride your first wave in Dubai. The creative variation of surfing – kitesurfing and wakesurfing can be enjoyed on Kite Beach, which is where you can find Dubai kiters and the kitesurfing community gather to catch some waves and ride them.

There is more to the beaches here than just sailing and surfing. A relatively easy and fun water sport that is, in essence, a variation of surfing and canoeing combined together is standup paddleboarding. In standup paddleboarding, the rider paddles to move through the water while standing upright on an oversized surfboard. If you are a newbie you can try Surf House Dubai or go to the popular Kite Beach to learn everything you need to know about standup paddlboarding, or stock up on some equipment if you know the sport.

There are many other ways to play in waters of Dubai or try a new water activity. Snorkelling, scuba diving, parasailing and diving are extremely popular with locals and tourists alike, and can be enjoyed in the open-sea side of Dubai’s beaches and across its coastline. Other popular extreme water sports craze you can add to your bucket list include wakeboarding, wakesurfing, jet skiing, flyboarding (an extreme water sport in which water-pressured jets from a wakeboard propel you out of the water and into the air) and creative variations of other motorized water sports. Most of these water sports activities are centred around the Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Marina and across the several beaches in the city. 

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