Before surfing started gaining popularity it was the wind sports that put Cabarete and the neighbouring beaches on the map. Windsurfing has been a popular sport for over 25 years in the Dominican Republic.
Encuentro is a largely undeveloped beach, no high rise (or permanent buildings) on the beach, so it still has a very pristine feel to it. The beach is nice white sand. Not a good swimming beach, because of the waves that make it a great surfing beach.
Compared to the other sailing sports, kiteboarding is both among the less expensive (including equipment) and the more convenient. It is also unique in that it harvests the wind energy from a much larger atmosphere volume, comparing to sail size.
The surfing conditions are superb. Encuentro boasts clean left- and right-breaking waves of up to 12 feet, there are no sharks, and it has an average water temperature of 80 F/26 C.
Coupled this with the low cost of a Dominican vacation and the genuine friendliness of the Dominican people -why would you take your surf vacation elsewhere? The word is out! When the talk is about surfing in the Caribbean, the buzz is all about Encuentro.