Surf weather
How is the weather for (kite)surfing?
Kitesurfing and surfing are both sports where you are completely dependent on nature. If there’s no wind or there are no waves, we can’t practice our sport. But how do you actually know when the time is right? Here we explain it to you using a few handy websites.
Wind direction and waves
Besides whether there is wind or not, the wind direction is also important. We only kitesurf with onshore or side-onshore winds; the reason for this is that if the wind blows from the land out to sea, there is a risk that we won’t be able to get back to shore.
The wind in Zandvoort is good between 220 degrees south-southwest (SSW) and 20 degrees north-northeast (NNE), as shown on the compass.
So when we read the wind forecast, we take the wind direction into account as well as the number of knots.
Other websites where you can follow the wind forecast are: www.windy.tv and windfinder.com
The most important thing for surfing is, of course, the waves we need to be pushed forward so we can stand up on the wave. In the Netherlands, waves are less of a given because we hardly have any real “swell.” These are waves that originate far out at sea, sometimes hundreds of kilometers away, due to strong winds. In the Netherlands, there isn’t much room for this because our North Sea isn’t that wide.
The waves in the Netherlands are therefore mainly dependent on the wind at the coast or the wind from the previous days. An exact explanation of how waves work, the current conditions, and the forecasts can be found on the website www.magicseaweed.com
Learning to surf is already possible with knee-high waves.