MapNorwayVigra (Giske), ÅlesundBlimsandenVigra (Giske), Ålesund

Blimsanden

Møre og Romsdal · Ålesund - Vigra/Giske · Roald / Ålesund

Part of Vigra (Giske), Ålesund →

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

beginner-friendlymedium crowds

On this page

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

Riding essentials

Season

May, Sep, Oct, Nov

Months riders and schools name

How windy

12 kt

Character: synoptic

Room to launch

huge

access rules on record, below

Water

mixed

14.9 °C in summerVigra is wave-free but sometimes very choppy, and Blimssanden picks up small waves and chop in NNE wind

Hazards

Reported by riders

Level

Beginner to intermediate

With a caveat: see Your level

BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced

Crowds

medium crowds · busy Jun Jul Aug

Schools

named at this spot

From the airport

10 min

Vigra (AES)

On the clock

07:00 · 14:00 · 17:00 · 22:00

There is no thermal clock here. Mean speed only moves from about 7.0 kt at night to 8.2 kt between 14:00 and 17:00, a lift of barely a knot, so the wind is whatever the synoptic chart is doing: it can be on at 07:00 or at 22:00. The scheduling freedom comes from the light instead - close to 20 hours of daylight in June and July. You wait for the front, not for the afternoon.

The marks are the clock times the record names, laid on a 24-hour day. The bar between the first and the last covers those hours; it is not a promise of wind.

Nearbystraight-line distance

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

Roaldsand / Roaldsanden
Synesvikano page yet
Giskebrua / Brusandenno page yet
Moloen / Giskeno page yet

The spot

Blimssanden is one of the island beaches the Ålesund and Sunnmøre kite scene uses, on the west side of Vigra, a few hundred meters from the Ålesund Kiteklubb wind station and about 3 km west of Ålesund Airport. Pale sand, clear saltwater, shallow a long way out: this is flat-to-choppy riding rather than a wave trip, and NNE is the direction that puts small waves and rougher water onto the shelf. It works in NNE, N, NW, W, WNW and WSW, and when the direction does not suit this beach, another one on the island does.

Season

The wind is frontal and there is no thermal to wait for, which is why summer is the weak half of the year here and November to February is the strong one. Sea temperature sits near 15 C in August and near 5 C in late winter and early spring, so a full wetsuit is standard and a 6/5 is not overkill in January.

Launch

It is also Vigra's most visited beach, which makes launch discipline in June, July and August a matter of not hitting anyone. No kite-specific zoning at Blimssanden itself is confirmed, though riders keep clear of the runway end.

The wind

Direction

cross-onSSW

Direction to shore

cross-on

Dominant direction

SSW, SW and WSW carry most of the strong hours in every month of the year - the frontal quarter straight off the Atlantic - with WSW the single most frequent direction over a year.N and NNE appear in spring and are the rougher setup here, putting small waves onto the shallow shelf.The wider Vigra/Giske beach cluster is what makes the spot work: when the direction does not suit Blimssanden, another beach on the island does.

Kite sizes

567891011121314151617

metres · typical quiver highlighted

The quiver, in words

For a 75-85 kg rider on a twin-tip: 12 m for the 13-16 kt that make up most rideable hours, 9-10 m for the 17-22 kt band that dominates November to February, 7-8 m for autumn and winter storm days.July and August are the light months - fewer than one afternoon hour in ten reaches 12 kt - so a 14-15 m or a foil is what turns a summer trip into actual sessions.Indicative: sized from the wind band, no local quiver list confirms it.

Character

synoptic

When it fills in: see above ↑

Average strength

Typical strength

Among afternoon hours above 12 kt the middle half sit between about 13 and 18 kt, with the top tenth near 22 kt - a wider, stronger spread than the annual mean suggests, because this is frontal wind rather than a thermal. Frequency is the catch: roughly 24-30 per cent of afternoon hours reach 12 kt from November through February, but only 8-9 per cent in July and August.

Exposed west-coast frontal wind, and the Vigra/Giske beach cluster between them covers a lot of directions. Blimssanden itself is best in NNE, N, NW, W, WNW and WSW, with NNE the rougher of them. July and August have many light-wind days.

Wind all year, but the shape is a winter one: about 24-30 per cent of afternoon hours reach 12 kt from November through February, 20-22 per cent in March and April, and only 8-9 per cent in July and August.

Autumn and winter bring the SW-W storms; spring leans more N-NE; the light summer weeks are the price of the warmest water and near-endless daylight.

The end-of-May Vigra kite festival has run since 2016 and normally finds wind.

Forecast

Live forecast

Windguru Windfinder Windy

Month by month

riding season from the spot record · the wind series here holds no strength figure

No month-by-month share of windy days is held for this spot. The months riders and schools name are May, Sep, Oct, Nov.

Measured at Alesund Airport, Vigra, ~3 km from the spot.

How this was measuredmeasured

The source named below holds no month-by-month figure for this place, so no season is drawn from it. The season is the one the spot record names.

Highlighted months are the riding season from the spot record.

Alesund Airport, Vigra · Windfinder

The water

Type

mixed

Standing depth

Long, gently shelving sand - langgrunn is the word used for it locally, shallow far out and safe enough for children. You can stand a long way from shore at low water and the bottom is clean pale sand with clear saltwater.It is open Atlantic, though: swell builds quickly on that shallow shelf, and the same beach that is sold as child-friendly carries a warning about swell and currents.

Tides

Tide patternSemidiurnal, four tides a day, modest by Atlantic standards.Tidal measurementsA full year of predictions for the Alesund reference point gives a mean high around 1.9 m and a mean low around 0.6 m above chart datum - roughly a 1.2 m mean range - with the biggest springs running from about 2.4 m down to near 0.0 m, some 2.3 m top to bottom.On the beachOn a beach this flat that swing moves the waterline a long way: the sand you rig on and the depth you body-drag in both change through a long session.

Temperature

14.9 °C summer · 5 °C winter

Wetsuit

5/3 mm is reported as normal for summer and shoulder season around Ålesund/Vigra; 6/5 or 5/5 mm is commonly used November-March.

Currents

No measured current data was found for Blimssanden itself. The beach is warned about for swell and currents in general terms, which on an exposed west-facing shelf usually means wave-driven set and drift rather than tidal flow; the tidal range is small enough that tidal current is unlikely to be the main problem.Treat an outgoing tide combined with an offshore easterly sector as the setup to avoid.

Conditions

Vigra is wave-free but sometimes very choppy, and Blimssanden picks up small waves and chop in NNE wind. The sand is fine and pale and the saltwater is clear. A drainage stream off the farmland behind can smell and run dirty, worst in spring after the fields are fertilized, and it was still an issue in 2021.

Your level

BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced

not for advanceds here

Lessons run here, and the shallow water and long clean beach make it a fair place to start; it is also rated intermediate elsewhere and the record keeps both readings. The wind is exposed Atlantic frontal wind with chop under it, so beginners should be with an instructor and off the strong and offshore days.

The scene

What riders come here for

freerideflat waterbeginner lessonsfoilflat-to-choppy waterscenic summer sessions

Who it suitsbeginner

Small local Sunnmøre/Ålesund kite scene with Ålesund Kiteklubb and local instructors using the Vigra beaches; summer also brings ordinary beach visitors.

Launch and rules

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

With a school or a boat

1 school names this spot

See who they are

On your own

Room to launch: huge

Read the access rules

Somewhere else

2 spots nearby

All 2 spots within 40 km are under Nearby

Rescue

No lifeguard and no kite rescue at the beach.

At sea the emergency number is 112. Redningsselskapet runs a non-emergency assistance line on 915 02016 and keeps rescue vessels at around 50 points along the Norwegian coast.

In practice your cover is the other riders on the sand and whichever school happens to be teaching that day, so ride with company rather than alone, and do not treat a shallow beach as a substitute for a plan.

Launch

Wide sandy beach on the west side of Vigra with easy access and parking nearby. A new toilet was being installed in July 2026 after the old one failed, and the access road is planned for an upgrade with passing places, so the arrangements at the beach are actively changing.Locals commonly drive cars onto the sand and park there, but in dry conditions it is soft enough to bury a vehicle; a visitor who does not know the beach should use the signed parking area and ask before driving on.

Hazards riders report 13 reported

Wind

The drainage stream's outlet position on the beach shifts from year to year with winter storms, so where the runoff reaches the water is not fixed.

Crowds and zones

proximity to Ålesund Airport - respect any marked no-kite zones
Ålesund Airport, Vigra is about 3 km east of Blimssanden; airport proximity and controlled airspace make local kite-height and runway-zone guidance important.
Beach users in summer: Blimssanden is described as Vigra's most visited beach, so launching requires extra care around swimmers, walkers and other kiters.
proximity to Alesund Airport - respect any marked no-kite zones
Alesund Airport, Vigra is about 3 km east of Blimssanden; airport proximity and controlled airspace make local kite-height and runway-zone guidance important.

Bottom

rocks reported at the neighboring Vigra beach, worth checking locally

Waves and currents

NNE wind can make the water rougher with small waves.
Fully exposed west-facing Atlantic beach - it is rarely completely calm and swell can build fast, so what looks like a flat shallow bay in the morning is not guaranteed to stay one.

Other

Agricultural drainage stream/runoff at the beach has been reported by Giske kommune, especially after spring fertilizing.
Cold water year-round by most warm-water standards.
Cold water year-round by most warm-water standards: monthly mean sea temperature runs from about 5.5 C in March to 14.9 C in August.
Soft dry sand: driving a car onto the beach is common locally and is also how visitors get stuck.

Rules & access

1 min read

as at neighboring Roaldsanden, avoid kiting close to the runway/airport zone
2026: no kitesurf permit, kite sector, height limit or seasonal kite ban specific to Blimssanden was found in Giske kommune or national sources; the beach is ordinary public recreation ground.
2026: Alesund Airport Vigra is about 3 km east and its runway is the one hard constraint riders themselves observe - at the neighbouring Vigra/Roaldssanden beach the stated rule is not to kite close to the runway at the southern end.
Molnes nature reserve lies along the same shore to the north. Inside the reserve motorised traffic on land is prohibited, along with camping, cycling and riding outside existing roads, and dumping or polluting - park at the signed lots rather than driving up the coast.
Giske kommune manages the beach as a friluftsomrade and lists signed parking for the island's natural areas; use it rather than improvising access across farmland.

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

Check the Ålesund Kiteklubb BL station and the Ålesund Airport/Vigra forecast before driving; the station page is listed about 279 m from the spot.
Ask which Vigra beach suits the day's direction instead of forcing a marginal one at Blimssanden. Roaldsanden and Blindheimsvika cover most of what this beach does not.
Do not build a summer trip around wind. July and August are the two lightest months, under one afternoon hour in ten reaching 12 kt, against three times that from November to February.
Watch the tide before parking or leaving gear low on the sand: mean range is about 1.2 m and the biggest springs move roughly 2.3 m of water.
Use the signed parking rather than driving onto the beach. Dry sand here buries cars, and the Molnes reserve is closed to vehicles.
There is no lifeguard: save 112 and the assistance line 915 02016 before you rig, and give swimmers and walkers a wide buffer in June-August.

Getting there

Airport

Ålesund Airport, Vigra (AES), on Vigra island, approximately 3 km east of Blimssanden.

Route

Best by rental car from Ålesund Airport or Ålesund city via the island road/tunnel/bridge network. Avinor offers car rental at AES and airport buses to Ålesund city center/Moa; a car is the practical option for moving between Vigra/Giske spots.

Transfer

10 min

Cost level

high

Staying

Stay on Vigra/Giske for closest beach access or in Ålesund for more hotels, restaurants and bad-weather options; the islands only have small shops/cafes.

No-wind days

Ålesund Art Nouveau town, Giske/Vigra beach walks and trails, Aksla viewpoint, kayaking/fjord trips, sea safaris, diving, lighthouses, golf at Giske Golfklubb, Sunnmøre hikes, and winter skiing/ski touring around Strandafjellet.

FAQ

Is Blimsanden suitable for beginners?

Yes, it is a verified kite lesson location with shallow, accessible water, though the exposed Atlantic wind can bring chop.

What is the wind like at Blimsanden?

NNE, N, NW, W, WNW and WSW all work at Blimsanden, with NNE sometimes producing rougher, choppier water.

Are there kite schools at Blimsanden?

KiteRight.no and Ålesund kiteskole both teach in the Vigra area, with lessons documented at Blimsanden itself.

What are the hazards at Blimsanden?

The beach sits close to Ålesund Airport, so marked no-kite zones near the runway should be respected, and cold water calls for a thick wetsuit year-round.

The bigger pictureEverything about Ålesund - Vigra/Giske

Last updated: August 2026