Water sports Nha Trang

Nha Trang sells four quite different things under the phrase "water sports", and they differ in price, in difficulty and in where they happen. Paragliding launches off a hillside about 10 km from the city. Flyboard runs at the marina in town. SUP happens on the flat water to the north before the sun is up. Fishing means a wooden boat out among the pens. None needs experience, but three of the four are worth asking about insurance before you pay.

The first thing is to clear up a word. "Dù lượn" here is not the parachute towed behind a speedboat: that is parasailing, where you are winched up and back down in a few minutes. Paragliding in Nha Trang is the real thing: you run down a hillside with a pilot, the wing opens, and you fly. The launch site is at Đắc Lộc to the north, a grass slope with a thatched shelter to wait in, and from up there you look straight down over the whole line of Nha Trang towers with the bay behind. You fly tandem with a pilot, so you need to know nothing; how long you stay up depends on the wind, and that is the question to ask when booking.

Flyboard is the opposite: it happens in town, at Ana Marina on Nguyễn Cơ Thạch. The largest marina here, with a pontoon and moored yachts. The principle is simple: a hose from a jet ski drives water through boots on your feet and lifts you out of the sea. Almost everyone falls repeatedly for the first ten minutes before standing up, so do not arrive expecting the video. The same operation runs jet skis. Being inside the bay, the water is calmer, and you are looking straight at the Trần Phú strip while you do it.

SUP is the cheapest and easiest of the four, and in Nha Trang it is a dawn activity. NhaTrangSupStation is based at Hòn Chồng in the north, where the bay is sheltered and the water is nearly flat at first light. At that hour the sun comes up behind the islands, paddlers are silhouettes, and the city towers stand in the distance. It suits people who are not strong swimmers (buoyancy aids are worn), families, and anyone who wants a good photograph without paying much for it. Afterwards, Hòn Chồng is right there, as are three of the 6am cafés.

Fishing is the slowest of the four and the one with fewest foreign customers. Trắng Đen runs a wooden boat registered TT-40 KH0069, "FISHING CLUB" painted along the roof, out to the fish pens in the bay. They are unusually honest about what you get: a crate of mixed small reef fish rather than one big one, and a plate of fried fish with a glass of beer on board. They cook what you catch. That is the actual point of the trip. No skill needed; what is needed is the willingness to sit on the water for a few hours in the sun.

Three things hold for all four. None of them posts a price anywhere, so you have to ring. For the three adventure sports, price and insurance belong in the same call. Weather decides everything: paragliding needs the right wind, flyboard and SUP need a flat sea, fishing needs small swell, so do not put any of them on the last day of a trip. And the windy season, October to December, is when they are cancelled most, exactly as with diving.

In the same family: the dive centres, diving at Hòn Mun, and the four-island tour if you want to get out on the bay with no skills at all.