MapSeychellesMahéAnse aux PinsMahé

Anse aux Pins

Au Cap · Mahé

also known as Mahe Island / Anse aux Pins

Part of Mahé →

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

beginner-friendlylow crowds

On this page

The spot
Wind
Forecast
Month by month
Water
Level
The scene
Launch
Schools
Tips
Getting there
Photos
FAQ

Riding essentials

Season

May–Sep

Months riders and schools name

How windy

12-22 knots

Character: trade

Room to launch

tight

access rules on record, below

Water

mixed

28.5 °C in summerThe bay is protected by an offshore coral reef about 500 m from shore

Hazards

Reported by riders

Level

Beginner to advanced

With a caveat: see Your level

BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced

Crowds

low crowds · busy July August September

Schools

named at this spot

From the airport

International Airport (SEZ)

Transfer times under Getting there

When it fills in

A trade-wind spot, not a thermal one: when the southeast trades are established the wind runs through the day and overnight rather than switching on at a set hour, so timing a session is about the tide, not the clock. Modelled statistics give mornings a marginal edge over afternoons, small enough to ignore.

Nearbystraight-line distance

Backup spotsWhere riders go when the wind doesn't work here.

Au Capno page yet
Long Island / Mohana
Cerf Islandno page yet
Anse Source d'Argent
Grand Anse Praslin
Cote d'Or Praslinno page yet

The spot

Location, reef, and season

Anse aux Pins sits on the east/southeast coast of Mahé, just south of Seychelles International Airport, and it is thinly documented for a spot this established. You ride a shallow reef lagoon: flatter water inside, waves breaking on the outer reef. The season is May-September, when the southeast trade wind runs around 10-22 knots and is strongest from June to August.

Tide, learning, and conditions

The launch is the catch. It is a narrow strip that widens at low tide and shrinks at high, with some grass/sand rigging reported near the old hotel area, so the tide decides your session more than the forecast does. Beginners can learn here under supervision, because the lagoon is shallow and reef protected, but the coral, the tide and the small beach are all real. It stays quiet by international standards and is still one of Mahé's more established kite locations.

Naming trap

One naming trap before you go: the adjoining Au Cap lagoon, from the Takamaka rum distillery down to the ex Reef Hotel, often gets called the main spot instead of Anse aux Pins.

The wind

locals call it Southeast trade winds

Direction

onshore

Direction to shore

Onshore to side-onshore. The beach faces east-south-east into the open Indian Ocean, so the May-September southeast trades cross the reef and come at the beach slightly from the right. The opposite-season northwest monsoon blows off the island behind you and is not a working direction here.

Dominant direction

SE to SSE in the main season; NW/WNW during the opposite monsoon

Kite sizes

567891011121314151617

metres · typical quiver highlighted

The quiver, in words

Wind and kite sizingThe southeast trade band is quoted between 10-20 and 12-22 knots, and the year-round average is under 10, so pack for the light end. For a 75-85 kg rider a 12 m covers the ordinary 12-16 knot days that make up much of May and September, 9-10 m is the size for a proper July or August trade day at 18-22 knots, and a 7 m is rarely worth carrying.Light wind solutionsA light-wind kite or a foil is what turns blank afternoons into sessions: only about a third of days in the year reach 12 knots at all. No local quiver has been documented, so treat this as sizing off the published band.

Character

trade

When it fills in: see above ↑

Average strength

About 9.7 knots as a year-round average, which is well under rideable - the useful number is that roughly 31% of days in the year reach 12 knots, rising to about 78% in July and 68-75% across August and September, against about 14% in April.

Typical strength

12-22 knots in the May-September southeast trades on the stronger accounts, 10-20 knots on the more conservative ones. July and August are the top of that; May and September sit at the bottom of it. The November-March northwest monsoon runs 8-12 knots and points the wrong way for this coast.

A trade spot with a short season. June to August is the strongest and steadiest stretch; either side of it the wind is lighter and less certain than at the classic trade destinations, and the year-round average is low enough to matter.

May to September is the season. The trades set in during May, are established by June, and peak in July and August when it turns cool, blows hardest and gets rough outside the reef; August is the most stable and strongest month.

Statistics differ on the exact percentages but agree on shape - July through September is the reliable stretch, April is the dead month of the year, and the November-March northwest monsoon is softer, less constant and misaligned with this coast.

Forecast

Live forecast

Windguru Windfinder Windy

Month by month

–Jan28°
–Feb29°
–Mar29°
6 ktApr29°
–May29°
–Jun27°
–Jul26°
15 ktAug26°
–Sep27°
–Oct28°
–Nov28°
–Dec28°

avg knots per month · water °C below · season highlighted

Monthly averages. Highlighted: the months riders and schools name (May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep).

Measured at Victoria (Mahé), ~13 km from the spot (not stated on page (WeatherSpark uses a multi-year, MERRA-2-based modeled climate record, typically ~1980-2016; no exact station-year count given)).

Every figure, month by monthKnots · Wind from · Air · Water

Month	Knots	Wind from	Air	Water
Jan	no figure	N	27.2 °C	28.3 °C
Feb	no figure	N	27.8 °C	28.9 °C
Mar	no figure	N	27.8 °C	29.4 °C
Apr	6.4 kt	W	28.3 °C	29.4 °C
May	no figure	S	27.8 °C	28.9 °C
Jun	no figure	S	26.7 °C	27.2 °C
Jul	no figure	S	26.1 °C	26.1 °C
Aug	14.6 kt	S	26.1 °C	26.1 °C
Sep	no figure	S	26.7 °C	27.2 °C
Oct	no figure	S	27.2 °C	27.8 °C
Nov	no figure	S	27.2 °C	28.3 °C
Dec	no figure	W	27.2 °C	28.3 °C

How this was measuredmeasured · not stated on page (WeatherSpark uses a multi-year, MERRA-2-based modeled climate record, typically ~1980-2016; no exact station-year count given)

A ground station recorded this, at the distance the page names.

A station this far away — often inland or at an airport — can understate accelerated local wind. The typical daily max and the direction are columns of the table above, month by month. Highlighted months are the riding season from the spot record.

Victoria (Mahé) · weatherspark · not stated on page (WeatherSpark uses a multi-year, MERRA-2-based modeled climate record, typically ~1980-2016; no exact station-year count given)

The water

Type

mixed

Standing depth

Shallow reef lagoon roughly 500 m wide.At low tide much of it is knee to waist deep and it is sometimes possible to wade the whole way out to the reef; at high tide the same water rides well but the beach in front of it nearly disappears. The depth is uneven rather than uniformly shallow, and it is the shallow corridors between coral heads that catch people out, not the average.

Tides

The tide runs this spot.Low water gives the widest beach and the flattest lagoon, at the cost of the shallowest coral. High water covers the reef and switches on the wave section, at the cost of a beach that shrinks to almost nothing and a launch that gets awkward.Mid to low water on the ebb is the compromise most sessions are built around.

Temperature

28.5 °C summer · 26.7 °C winter

Modelled monthly average: 26–29 °C

Wetsuit

Boardshorts or swimsuit year-round; rash vest useful for sun protection.

Conditions

The bay is protected by an offshore coral reef about 500 m from shore. Inside the reef is mostly flat to choppy shallow lagoon water, with waves on the reef reported at roughly 1-3 m. Seaweed is reported on the beach from June to September.

Your level

BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced

The ratings disagree, from beginner through advanced on one hand to beginner, intermediate and expert on the other. The shallow reef lagoon is easy water to learn in, but the narrow tidal beach, the coral shallows and the waves on the reef mean a beginner here wants an instructor or a local watching.

The scene

What riders come here for

flat waterbeginner lessonsfreeridelight windreef waves

Who it suitsbeginner

Quiet by international kite standards. It is the most used kite beach on Mahé and still not crowded, and on an ordinary day there are few people on the sand at all.

Launch and rules

three ways on to the water, and what each one asks of you

With a school or a boat

2 schools name this spot

See who they are

On your own

Room to launch: tight

Read the access rules

Somewhere else

6 spots nearby

All 6 spots within 40 km are under Nearby

Rescue

No lifeguard and no kite rescue at this beach. Nothing on shore will come and get you, and the reef sits 500 m out with open ocean beyond, so drifting past a gap in it is a real problem rather than a long walk home.

National emergency numbers are 112 general, 133 police, 151 ambulance. If you plan to ride outside the lagoon, arrange boat cover with an operator first.

Launch

Narrow sand beach about 1100 m long and only some 15 m deep, on the east coast about 3.5 km south of the international airport. There is a grassy area near the old hotel where you can lay a kite out without filling it with sand.Parking is limited directly at the beach but usable, with more space near the Katiolo nightclub, and a bus stop sits on the coast road behind.Fine at low tide; small and fiddly for launching and landing at high tide.

Hazards riders report 14 reported

Wind

Seaweed on the beach and in the shallows from June to September, overlapping the best wind
Gusty and variable wind outside the settled trade months

Crowds and zones

Road, swimmers, snorkellers and beach users on a narrow public beach
Swimmers, snorkellers and beach users sharing a 15 m-deep strip of sand
No lifeguard, no rescue boat and no organised cover of any kind

Bottom

Seaweed reported June to September

Waves and currents

Coral reef, especially at low tide
Coral reef and very shallow reef sections, especially at low tide
Small launch at high tide
Possible 1-3 m reef waves in the outer section
The outer reef 500 m offshore with waves reported around 1-3 m breaking on it, and open Indian Ocean beyond
A launch that shrinks to almost nothing at high tide, making landing awkward

Protected areas and rules

Coral heads and very shallow reef sections inside the lagoon, worst at low tide

Other

Narrow public beach with a coast road immediately behind it

Rules & access

1 min read

As of 2026 no kitesurf permit, zone, hour or seasonal restriction specific to Anse aux Pins is on record, and the national maritime regulator publishes nothing at spot level.

That is an absence of published rule, not a licence: this is a narrow public beach with a road behind it, so check with a local rider or the nearest hotel before rigging in front of an occupied stretch, and stay out of the swimming frontage.

Access rules drift faster than anything else we hold — check locally, and propose an edit if this has changed.

Schools that ride here

Rider tips

Ride mid to low water: more beach, flatter lagoon, and you can see where the coral sits.
Walk the lagoon at low tide before your first session. The shallow corridors between coral heads are the thing to learn, and from standing depth you can see all of them.
Pack reef-aware footwear if you plan to walk out toward the reef.
Check whether the day's plan is Anse aux Pins or the adjoining Au Cap lagoon; the two names get used for overlapping water and the wave section belongs to the Au Cap end.
Take July and August for wind, May and September for comfort. The peak months are also the roughest and the most seaweedy.
Count on no rescue. Ride with someone, and do not go outside the reef without a boat arranged.

Getting there

Airport

Seychelles International Airport (SEZ), Pointe Larue / Mahé

Route

The spot is immediately south of the airport on Mahé's east coast, roughly 10 minutes by road, so a taxi is the obvious move on arrival. There is a bus stop on the coast road behind the beach if you are travelling light.

Transfer

2-10 minutes from Seychelles International Airport depending on exact launch/accommodation point and traffic/source

Cost level

high

Staying

Guesthouses, self-catering apartments and a few hotels along the Anse aux Pins/Au Cap strip, with shops and restaurants in walking distance. A 2026 check returned 475+ hotels around Anse aux Pins, which is a search radius rather than a count of what stands on this beach.

No-wind days

Snorkelling and swimming in the shallow reef lagoon, Seychelles Golf Club, Domaine de Val des Pres craft village, Turtle Bay, nearby restaurants and bars, and broader Mahé sightseeing.

Photos

FAQ

When is the best time to kite at Anse aux Pins?

The May to September southeast trade season is best, strongest and steadiest from June to August.

Is Anse aux Pins suitable for beginners?

The shallow reef lagoon helps learning, but beginners should use instruction because of the narrow tidal beach and reef shallows.

What is the wind like?

Typical wind runs 12-22 knots in the southeast trade season, reaching the reef-protected bay onshore.

Is there a launch or space constraint?

Yes, the beach is small at high tide and wider at low tide, so timing sessions around mid to lower tide gives more room.

What are the main hazards?

Coral reef sections are shallow especially at low tide, and reef waves outside the lagoon can reach roughly 1-3m.

The bigger pictureEverything about Mahé

Last updated: August 2026