Wind speed for kitesurfing: how many knots do you need?

The minimum wind speed for kitesurfing on a standard twin tip is roughly 12 knots, which is about 14 mph or force 4 on the Beaufort scale. As a beginner you want 12 to 20 knots, and above all steady wind blowing along the beach or at an angle from the sea. Above 25 knots it's wind for people with experience.

Most of the confusion comes from units. Kiters talk in knots, US weather apps show mph, European forecasts often use m/s or km/h and sailors think in Beaufort, so the same wind gets a different number in every app. And beyond the speed, it matters how steady the wind is and where it comes from.

Knots, mph, m/s and Beaufort: a quick conversion

A knot is 1 nautical mile per hour, exactly 1.852 km/h or about 1.15 mph. On the beach almost everyone talks in knots, so set your forecast app to knots and you'll speak the same language as the people around you.

3 shortcuts cover most situations:

• Knots times 1.15 is mph. 20 knots is about 23 mph.
• m/s times 2 is roughly knots. To be exact, 1 m/s is 1.94 knots, so 7 m/s is about 14 knots.
• Knots times 1.85 is km/h. 15 knots is about 28 km/h.

These are the published Beaufort speed bands from WMO. Each column has its own rounded boundaries; they aren't exact conversions of the endpoints in knots.

Why Beaufort alone isn't enough

Each Beaufort force covers too wide a range for kiting. Force 4 covers 11 to 16 knots, and that gap is the difference between a good and a wasted day: at 11 knots you'll barely get going on a normal kite, at 16 you're riding comfortably. Treat Beaufort as a rough guide and decide by the knots.

How much wind a beginner needs

The wind you can ride in depends on your kite size, your weight and your board. Beginners usually learn on a twin tip, a symmetrical board you can ride in either direction. On that board, it looks roughly like this:

• Under 10 knots: you won't get going on standard gear. The kite keeps falling out of the sky and is hard to relaunch.
• 10 to 12 knots: marginal. Experienced riders go out on a big kite or a foil board, which has a wing beneath it in the water.
• 12 to 20 knots: the range for lessons and your first hours on your own. 15 to 20 knots of steady wind is the sweet spot.
• 20 to 25 knots: on a smaller kite, once you've put in plenty of hours below 20 knots.
• 25 to 30 knots: strong wind, not for beginners.
• Over 30 knots: very experienced riders on small kites only.

Light wind has its own trap for beginners. The kite struggles to stay in the air, and once it drops in the water you often can't relaunch it and have to get back to the beach on your own. That's why it pays to ride where you can walk back to shore.

Why a small change in knots makes a big difference to the pull

For the same kite held still in the air, lift grows with the square of the wind speed, provided its settings, angle to the wind and other conditions stay the same. Going from 15 to 30 knots then gives 4 times the lift, and going from 15 to 20 gives almost 2 times as much. That comparison shows why a few extra knots make such a difference, but it doesn't give you the exact pull you'll feel while riding.

When you're riding, the kite's movement also affects the pull. In stronger wind the kite moves faster and reacts more sharply to every input on the control bar you steer it with, so every steering mistake hits harder.

That's also why kite size depends on both the wind and your weight. The kite size calculator gives you a starting number, and what size kite do I need goes into more detail.

Gusts: the number next to the average

A wind forecast shows 2 numbers: the average wind speed and the gusts. For a beginner the gusts matter just as much as the average.

First decide whether the conditions suit your level at all. As a beginner, stay on the beach when the wind varies sharply and discuss it with your instructor; a smaller kite won't solve that problem. The easiest wind to learn in is wind where the gusts sit close to the average. Once the conditions are suitable, choose a kite size you can handle in the gusts too. The less time you have on the water, the harder sudden changes are to manage.

Gusts also come from whatever the wind blows over. I know this from snowkiting at Moldava in the Czech Krušné hory mountains: when the wind comes off the forest and you're close to the trees, the kite becomes unstable in the turbulent wind and you need to move further away. By the water, buildings, dunes or cliffs do the same. There's more on gusts in gusty wind and turbulence, and how to read a wind forecast shows where to find both numbers in the apps.

Wind direction matters as much as wind speed

The same 15 knots can be a great day or a day to stay on the beach. It depends on where the wind comes from relative to the shore:

• Sideshore and side-onshore: blowing along the beach, or at an angle from the sea onto it. These are the safest directions for beginners, side-onshore most of all. You ride out and back, and if something goes wrong you drift along the shore or towards it.
• Onshore: blowing straight from the sea onto the beach. It's usually clean because it comes over open water. If you can't ride upwind yet, making progress against the wind, you end up back on the sand fast, and in deep water with waves you can struggle to get away from the beach at all.
• Offshore: blowing from the land out to sea. Wind that has crossed land is often gusty, and if something goes wrong it carries you away from the beach. Don't head out in offshore wind for your first independent sessions, even if the water near the beach is shallow or there's a boat at the spot.

Safety on the water has its own guide, kitesurfing safety: what every rider must know.

During and after your course: who decides if you go out

During lessons, your instructor decides about the wind. A good course should still teach you to read the wind yourself, not just how to get up on the board. Before you go out without supervision, have your instructor confirm that you're ready to ride independently. You need to be able to use the safety systems, get yourself back to shore if something goes wrong, stop under control and ride back upwind. If you can't do that yet, keep practising under supervision.

Take an experienced buddy for your first independent sessions and look for these conditions:

• 12 to 20 knots, with gusts close to the average
• wind along the beach or at an angle from the sea, never offshore
• shallow water where you can walk back, and help from someone who knows how to assist safely with launching and landing
• if you're not sure, you stay on the beach

The last point is the hardest to stick to, because after a course you want to be out every single day.

Where to learn in steady wind

Steady wind and shallow water are the best combination for a beginner. On the kite safari in Egypt, which I've been on several times, you kite in lagoons around Red Sea islands. At Tawila, the most popular spot on the safari, the organiser reports steady wind of 15 to 25 knots over shallow water with a sandy bottom. Visits need to be arranged in advance because there's an entry fee. The top half of that range is a lot for a beginner, so your instructor decides when you go out and on what size kite. Beach boys help with launching and landing, and a rescue boat is part of the safari.

The beginner course there costs EUR 600 for 6 days, and a refresher for people who've already done a course is EUR 180 for 3 hours. Don't take that as a promise you'll be riding on your own after a week: it depends on the wind, your instructor and how much you've done before.