Trade winds
Steady tropical easterlies blowing roughly between 30°N and 30°S — the most reliable wind belts on the planet.
Also known as: trades, tradewinds
Trade winds blow from east to west on either side of the equator, driven by the temperature contrast between subtropical highs and the tropical convergence zone. They’re the wind belts that carried sailing ships across the Atlantic and that now carry kiters to Dakhla, Tarifa, Cabarete, and across the Caribbean.
Why riders chase them:
- Stable 15–25 kt for weeks at a time
- Same direction most days, with a small diurnal sea-breeze bump in the afternoon
- Forecast models agree more often than not — multi-model spread stays tight
In the Northern Hemisphere trades blow from the NE; in the Southern Hemisphere from the SE. They get a daily sea-breeze pulse on land, which is why Maui afternoons routinely run 5 kt stronger than the morning trade. For a wider view of where trades sit in the wind family tree, see Types of Wind.
Related terms
- Gradient wind The large-scale wind driven by pressure differences between weather systems — the synoptic background flow that everything else rides on top of.
- Sea breeze A daytime onshore wind driven by uneven heating of land and water — the engine of most summer coastal sessions.
- Fetch The unobstructed distance of open water over which the wind blows in one direction — controls how big and clean waves get.