Wind spot guides
The great windy places of the coasts we cover, one guide at a time: the wind systems that drive them, the seasons, the launches, the hazards — and the real stations that let you watch each spot live.
France
Leucate – La Franquiread the guide →Aude · Golfe du Lion · OccitanieIf Europe's wind sports had a capital, it would sit on this stretch of Aude coastline. The Tramontane funnels over Leucate on something like 300 days a year, and a whole ecosystem of beaches, lagoons and world-class events has grown up underneath it.Gruissanread the guide →Aude · Golfe du Lion · OccitanieGruissan pairs the same dependable Tramontane that makes this stretch of Aude famous with a beach built for racing: the wide, straight sand of Plage des Chalets, where the Défi Wind has grown from about a hundred windsurfers in 2001 to more than 1,350 lining up on one start line every May.L'Almanarre – Hyèresread the guide →Var · Presqu'île de Giens · Provence-Alpes-Côte d'AzurA five-kilometre beach on the Giens peninsula, boxed in by two winds that behave nothing alike: the Mistral piles onshore chop from the northwest, the Levant flattens the same bay from due east. Olympic sailors have raced on the water between them for more than fifty years.La Palmeread the guide →Aude · Golfe du Lion · OccitanieA few kilometres down the coast from Leucate, the same Tramontane that fills sails all along this shore does something different at La Palme: it turns a two-and-a-half-kilometre beach called Rouet into the only venue in Europe where windsurfers and kiters can attempt an official nautical-mile speed record.Wissantread the guide →Pas-de-Calais · Côte d'Opale · Hauts-de-FranceTwo chalk headlands frame this bay on the Dover Strait, and both of them speed the wind up before it reaches the sand. Wissant reads stronger than the regional forecast on its best days, which is the whole reason kiters and windsurfers travel the length of the Channel coast to sail here.Beauducread the guide →Bouches-du-Rhône · Camargue · Provence-Alpes-Côte d'AzurTwelve kilometres of dirt and salt track keep Beauduc emptier than any other Golfe du Lion spot, and the Mistral arrives at the end of it with almost nothing left to slow it down. The beach curves into a wide, open bay, and the shack village at its edge has run itself since the 1970s.Marseille – Pradoread the guide →Bouches-du-Rhône · Rade de Marseille · Provence-Alpes-Côte d'AzurMarseille's bay is a city spot: the same Mistral that empties the Rhône valley arrives here squeezed between hills and breakwaters, and a summer sea breeze fills the gaps. Between Prado and Pointe Rouge, the same water hosted Olympic sailing in 2024.Port-Saint-Louisread the guide →Bouches-du-Rhône · Camargue · Golfe de FosWhere the Rhône meets the Golfe de Fos, the Mistral arrives already accelerated by the length of the valley behind it. Plage Napoléon takes the open-beach chop; the sheltered bay at Carteau, a short walk behind the dunes, takes the flat water. Between the two, Port-Saint-Louis has built a serious speed-sailing scene, with a hometown world-record kiter to show for it.La Torcheread the guide →Finistère · Baie d'Audierne · BrittanyThis low headland at the southern tip of Baie d'Audierne hosted windsurfing's most-watched day in France: on 4 May 1986, around 150,000 people lined the dunes to watch a slalom final sailed in a full Atlantic storm, broadcast live nationwide. The wind and swell that produced that spectacle still show up here most days of the year.Canet & Le Barcarèsread the guide →Pyrénées-Orientales · Roussillon coast · OccitanieSouth of Leucate the coast runs straight for another twenty kilometres, and the Pyrenees close in from the west with barely thirty kilometres of plain left before the range meets the sea. Three towns share this stretch: Canet-en-Roussillon, Sainte-Marie-la-Mer and Le Barcarès. The Tramontane treats each of them differently.Piantarellaread the guide →Strait of Bonifacio · Corse-du-Sud · CorsicaAt the southern tip of Corsica, the Strait of Bonifacio narrows to 11 kilometres of open water before Sardinia, and Piantarella sits right against it: a shallow turquoise lagoon on one side, the strait's full force on the other. In the shoulder seasons, roughly 6 days in 10 reach gliding wind.Le Jaï – Étang de Berreread the guide →Bouches-du-Rhône · Étang de Berre · ProvenceFifteen minutes from Marseille airport, a narrow strip of sand splits one lagoon from another and turns the Mistral into pure, flat-water power. Le Jaï is where French windsurfing's slalom and freestyle scene comes to train, race and, on the biggest days, get thrown around.Six-Foursread the guide →Var · Six-Fours peninsula · Provence-Alpes-Côte d'AzurRobby Naish is said to have named this beach mid-session, and the name has stuck ever since. Brutal Beach earns it: when the Mistral gets going, this stretch of the Var coast throws up shorebreak that most of this part of the Mediterranean rarely sees.Le Crotoy – Baie de Sommeread the guide →Somme · Baie de Somme · Hauts-de-FranceAt the mouth of the Somme estuary, Channel wind meets a bay that drains and refills across several kilometres of sand, twice a day. Le Crotoy and Saint-Valery-sur-Somme sit on opposite banks of that flat, and here reading the tide table matters as much as reading the wind.Penthièvre – Quiberonread the guide →Morbihan · Quiberon peninsula · BrittanyAt its narrowest point, the Quiberon peninsula is barely wide enough for the road and the dunes either side of it. Fort de Penthièvre sits right on that pinch point, with open Atlantic swell on one beach and a flat, sheltered bay on the other, a few hundred metres apart — so the wind direction decides which beach you rig on, not which day you drive out.Saint-Maloread the guide →Ille-et-Vilaine · Côte d'Émeraude · BrittanySaint-Malo sails on two clocks at once: the wind, which arrives off the open Channel from anywhere between west and northeast, and the tide, which averages around twelve metres of range and can push past thirteen on the biggest spring tides — deciding whether there is a beach to launch from at all.
United Kingdom
Camber Sandsread the guide →Rye Bay · Romney Marsh · East SussexMore than three kilometres of flat sand between the mouth of the River Rother and the army ranges at Lydd, about two hours' drive from London. Kitesurfing at Camber Sands is zoned to the eastern end and works in winds from south-east round to west. Check the tide before you leave home: it decides when you can ride.Weymouth & Portland Harbourread the guide →Portland Harbour · Weymouth Bay · DorsetWindsurfing and kitesurfing at Weymouth happen on two waters. Portland Harbour, between the town and the Isle of Portland, is a large area of enclosed water sheltered by Chesil Beach and four breakwaters; Weymouth Bay, outside the breakwaters, is the choice in southerly and south-easterly winds. The 2012 Olympic sailing was run from the harbour shore, and Weymouth Speed Week has been held on the harbour every autumn since 1972. To kitesurf there you need a permit from the harbour authority.Exmouthread the guide →Exe Estuary · East DevonKitesurfing at Exmouth, where the River Exe meets the sea 18 km south-east of Exeter, happens on two waters about two kilometres apart. The Duck Pond, a shallow part of the estuary, works best around high tide. Off the seafront, a sandbank dries as the tide falls and keeps the swell out of the channel inside it. The wind direction and the state of the tide tell you which one to choose.Hayling Islandread the guide →Hayling Bay · Havant · HampshireKitesurfing at Hayling Island happens on its south shore, which runs for about six kilometres between the mouths of Langstone and Chichester harbours, two hours' drive from London. At the western end, the East Winner sandbank dries as the tide falls and leaves flat, shallow lagoons inside it, and most riders go out then. Kites may launch from two stretches of the beach, one run by a members' club and one free, and not at all inside either harbour.
Netherlands
Brouwersdamread the guide →Grevelingen · Goeree-Overflakkee · Schouwen-DuivelandKitesurfing at the Brouwersdam happens on the North Sea side of a 6.5-kilometre dam between Goeree-Overflakkee and Schouwen-Duiveland, about 50 minutes' drive from Rotterdam. Riders use a marked zone in the middle of the beach, which works in winds from south-west round to north-east. On the other side of the dam lies the Grevelingen, a flat saltwater lake. It is for windsurfers; kites are not allowed on it.Wijk aan Zeeread the guide →IJmond · Beverwijk · Velsen-NoordKitesurfing at Wijk aan Zee happens on the beach between the village and the Noordpier, the northern breakwater of the harbour entrance at IJmuiden, about 40 minutes' drive from Amsterdam. Most of that beach lies just over the municipal border in Velsen-Noord, where kites have their own zone, reached from the Reyndersweg. It works in winds from south-south-west round to north. Surfers come for the waves along the pier, and the water right next to it is kept for them and for swimmers, so kites start a few hundred metres further north.Zandvoortread the guide →Zuid-Kennemerland · North HollandKitesurfing at Zandvoort happens on a 9-kilometre North Sea beach half an hour by direct train from Amsterdam Centraal. The beach faces west-north-west and works in winds from south-south-west round to north-north-east. From 15 April to 1 October, kites may start and land only in six marked zones along the beach, and the rest of the shore is kept for swimmers. Further out, at least 150 metres from the waterline, riders may use the whole coast.Bloemendaal aan Zeeread the guide →Bloemendaal · Zuid-Kennemerland · North HollandKitesurfing at Bloemendaal aan Zee happens in one place: a 750-metre stretch of beach between beach posts 61 and 61.75, just north of the row of beach pavilions at the end of the Zeeweg. Bloemendaal's bylaw bans kites everywhere else on its 4.3-kilometre beach, all year. The beach faces west-north-west and works in winds from south-south-west round to north-north-east. It is about 40 minutes by car from Amsterdam, or a bus ride from Haarlem station.Vlielandread the guide →Wadden Islands · FrieslandKitesurfing on Vlieland happens on the North Sea beach at the end of the Badweg, about 2 kilometres from the ferry harbour at Oost-Vlieland, the island's only village. The beach faces north-north-west and works in winds from west round to north-east. From 1 May to 1 October, kites are banned between 08:00 and 22:00 on two guarded stretches of that beach, and kitesurfing is banned all year on the island's Wadden side. Visitors cannot bring a car, so your gear crosses from Harlingen on the boat with you.Muiderbergread the guide →IJmeer · Gooise Meren · North HollandKitesurfing at Muiderberg happens in one buoyed zone on the IJmeer, off the dike by the old church at the western end of the village, about 25 minutes' drive from central Amsterdam. The water is fresh, has no tide and is mostly less than 1.5 metres deep. The shore faces north-north-east, so the zone works in winds from north-west round to east. South-westerlies, the most common strong wind around Amsterdam, blow offshore here. Kites are banned all year on the rest of the municipality's shore.Workumread the guide →IJsselmeer · Súdwest-Fryslân · FrieslandKitesurfing at Workum happens off It Soal, a sand beach about 800 metres long south-west of the town, on the Frisian shore of the IJsselmeer. You launch from the beach into a buoyed kite zone over fresh water with no tide, and for the first few hundred metres it is shallow enough to stand in. The beach faces west, so it works in winds from south-west round to north-west, and a southerly runs along it; anything from north through east to south-east blows offshore. Kitesurfing is allowed there all year, between sunrise and sunset.Texelread the guide →Wadden Islands · North HollandKitesurfing on Texel happens on the North Sea beach. The main kite spot is the sport beach that starts a few hundred metres north of the Paal 17 entrance, south-west of De Koog, and it works in winds from south-west round to north. Kites may also launch between Paal 28 and the lighthouse and, away from pavilions, north of Paal 9. De Hors and the Slufter are closed to kites, and on the Wadden side only Dijkmanshuizen is open, from 1 April to 1 October. The TESO ferry takes you and your gear across from Den Helder in about 20 minutes.
Denmark
Klitmøller — Cold Hawaiiread the guide →Thy · North Sea coast · North JutlandA fishing hamlet of a few hundred people on the most exposed stretch of the Danish North Sea coast, and one of the best-known wave spots in northern Europe. The name started as a joke among Danish windsurfers in the 1980s. Everything except the water temperature turned out to be accurate.Hvide Sanderead the guide →Ringkøbing Fjord · West JutlandA working fishing town built on a sandbar, with the North Sea on one side of the road and Ringkøbing Fjord on the other. Three hundred metres separate open-ocean swell from waist-deep flat water, which is why half of northern Europe's windsurfers seem to end up here in July.Skagenread the guide →Grenen · Skagerrak & Kattegat · North JutlandDenmark narrows to a sandspit at Skagen and simply stops, with the Skagerrak on one side and the Kattegat on the other and a visible line of colliding waves at the tip. For anyone chasing wind, the geography has an obvious consequence: there is nearly always a side that works.Amager Strandparkread the guide →Øresund · CopenhagenA five-kilometre artificial beach built in 2005 on the doorstep of a capital city, with a shallow lagoon on one side of it and open Øresund on the other. Fifteen minutes from the city centre on the metro, which makes it the most-used wind spot in Denmark by a wide margin.
On the way: Ringkøbing Fjord (Bork Havn) · Rødsand (Rømø) · Kerteminde · Nordvestsjælland
Croatia
On the way: Viganj · Neretva Delta · Nin (Zadar) · Premantura
Slovenia
On the way: Seča (Portorož) · Izola · Žusterna (Koper)