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Lo Stagnone

Sicily - Lo Stagnone · Trapani · Marsala

also known as Stagnone di Marsala, Stagnone Lagoon, Lo Stagnone Lagoon, Isole dello Stagnone

Part of Lo Stagnone, Sicily →

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

lagoonbeginner-friendlyhigh 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

Apr–Oct

Months riders and schools name

How windy

12-25 kt

Character: mixed · cross-shore

Room to launch

huge

access rules on record, below

Water

lagoon|flat

25 °C in summerIsola Grande and Santa Maria close the lagoon off from the open sea, which is what keeps the main riding water flat

Hazards

Reported by riders

Level

Beginner to advanced

With a caveat: see Your level

BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced

Crowds

high crowds · busy Jun Jul Aug Sep

Schools

named at this spot

From the airport

Trapani-Birgi (TPS)

Transfer times under Getting there

Thermal sea breeze in the warm season

12:00 · 18:00

The warm-season thermal usually forms around midday and strengthens through the afternoon, with the strongest hours roughly 12:00 to 18:00, so mornings are for coffee and sightseeing. Frontal Maestrale or Scirocco ignores that clock and can blow at any hour, sometimes overnight.

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.

San Teodoro beachno page yet
San Teodorono page yet
Tahiti / salt pans areano page yet
Isola Santa Maria flatsno page yet
Isola Grande / Salina wallno page yet
Isola La Scuolano page yet

The spot

Lo Stagnone is the shallow salt lagoon north of Marsala in western Sicily, inside the Isole dello Stagnone di Marsala reserve, and the kite shore is Birgi Vecchi: roughly 2 km of school frontage facing water that Isola Grande and Santa Maria keep flat. You can touch the bottom across about 80% of the lagoon, in 15 cm to 1.5 m of water, which is why more people take a first lesson here than almost anywhere else in Europe.

Learning and wind

The wind is a warm-season thermal that forms around midday and blows hardest between 12:00 and 18:00, so mornings are for coffee and the salt pans. This is not wilderness: in July and August the central shore is thick with lessons, and the same depth that makes it safe destroys fins. Walk a new sector before you ride it, because the shallows here move with wind and air pressure rather than tide.

Advanced riding and access

Advanced riders get the flats around Santa Maria and the salt-pan edges, and open water near San Teodoro when wind direction and the rules allow it. Trapani-Birgi is 10-15 minutes away and Palermo about an hour to an hour and a quarter by car, which makes this one of the easier flights-to-water trips in the Mediterranean.

The wind

locals call it Thermal sea breeze in the warm season; Maestrale/Mistral, Grecale and Scirocco also matter locally

Direction

cross-shore

Dominant direction

NW / N / NE in many thermal and Maestrale patterns, with SE/S Scirocco episodes

Kite sizes

5678910111213141516

metres · typical quiver highlighted

The quiver, in words

For a 75-85 kg rider the windy months, March, April and October to December, run on 7-9 m, with a 12-14 m in the bag for the light days between fronts.From May to September the most-used range is 9-14 m: a day often starts on the 12 and finishes on the 9 as the thermal builds through the afternoon.A second framing of the same seasons gives 8-10 m in spring and autumn and a 12 m or bigger from June to September.Renting on site is common precisely because both ends of the quiver get used.

Character

mixed

When it fills in: see above ↑

Average strength

Annual average NW wind of 10 kt with 13 kt gusts, from station observations dated 2015-03-01 to 2017-02-28. Riding wind is better than that reads, because the summer thermal adds several knots over model forecasts.

Typical strength

12-25 kt covers most usable days. Summer thermal commonly settles at 15-20 kt and the thermal itself adds roughly 5-8 kt over a plain forecast. Spring, autumn and winter systems can pass 30 kt and occasionally 40 kt.

Generally steady in the warm-season thermal regime, with spring/autumn forecast changes and winter or Scirocco/Maestrale systems more frontal, stronger and less predictable.

The main season runs April to late October, with March-November workable and reportedly around 300 windy days a year. May to September or October is the thermal peak; spring and autumn come in stronger and more varied. December-February is possible for self-sufficient riders, with fewer services open and more synoptic wind.

Forecast

Live forecast

Windguru Windfinder Windy

Month by month

Jan31
Feb19
Mar40
Apr, riders' month30
May, riders' month15
Jun, riders' month8
Jul, riders' month21
Aug, riders' month10
Sep, riders' month25
Oct, riders' month19
Nov15
Dec23

windy days per month (3 h+ at 12 kn+)

Ringed months are the ones riders and schools name: Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct.

31%Jan15°
19%Feb14°
40%Mar14°
30%Apr16°
15%May18°
8%Jun21°
21%Jul24°
10%Aug26°
25%Sep24°
19%Oct22°
15%Nov19°
23%Dec17°

windy days per month (3 h+ at 12 kn+) · water °C below · season highlighted

Modelled from the operational forecast archive at 1.5–7 km (2023-2024), daylight hours only, not a ground station: it resolves thermal, lake and valley winds far better than coarse reanalysis but still tends to understate a strong local thermal.

Every figure, month by monthWindy days · Force 4+ · 12 kn or more · Knots · Wind from · Peaks at · Air · Water · Readings

Month	Windy days	Force 4+	12 kn or more	Knots	Wind from	Peaks at	Air	Water	Readings
Jan	31%	40%	32%	10.7 kt	NNW	15:00	12.8 °C	15 °C	62
Feb	19%	28%	21%	9.6 kt	WNW	14:00	12.8 °C	14.4 °C	57
Mar	40%	55%	47%	12.1 kt	SSE	14:00	13.9 °C	14.4 °C	62
Apr	30%	52%	38%	11.4 kt	NNW	14:00	16.7 °C	15.6 °C	60
May	15%	48%	31%	10.6 kt	NNW	15:00	20.6 °C	17.8 °C	62
Jun	8%	30%	13%	9.4 kt	NNW	15:00	24.4 °C	21.1 °C	60
Jul	21%	45%	32%	10.3 kt	NNW	15:00	27.8 °C	24.4 °C	62
Aug	10%	40%	18%	10 kt	NNW	15:00	28.9 °C	25.6 °C	62
Sep	25%	50%	32%	10.8 kt	SSE	14:00	25.6 °C	24.4 °C	60
Oct	19%	35%	27%	10.1 kt	SSE	14:00	21.7 °C	21.7 °C	62
Nov	15%	37%	22%	10 kt	NNW	14:00	17.2 °C	18.9 °C	60
Dec	23%	39%	27%	10.2 kt	NNW	14:00	13.9 °C	16.7 °C	62

How this is modelledmodelled · 2023-2024

A weather model's cell over this place, not a station on it. Good for comparing places, weaker for one beach.

A windy day has at least three consecutive daylight hours at 12 knots or more. 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.

High-resolution weather model (modelled) · Open-Meteo historical forecast archive — best-match operational model (ICON-D2 / AROME / ICON-EU / GFS by region), not a ground station · 2023-2024

The water

Type

lagoon|flat

Standing depth

You can touch the bottom across roughly 80% of the lagoon, with depths running from about 15 cm to 1.5 m in the riding areas.The northern part is the shallow one and reaches about 1.8 m at its deepest; the water deepens southward to around 2.5 m.Depth changes over short distances, so the same line can go from waist-deep to shin-deep in a few board lengths.

Tides

No tidal cycle worth planning around: the lagoon is enclosed and lesson areas are effectively tide-free.Depth still varies place to place and reportedly moves with wind and air pressure more than with tide, so a patch that was knee-deep one day can be ankle-deep after a long blow.Check the shallows on foot before riding fins or anything that hangs below the board.

Temperature

25 °C summer · 15.6 °C winter

Modelled monthly average: 14–26 °C

Wetsuit

July-September commonly boardshorts, bikini or UV lycra; a shorty can help on windier/long sessions. September-June local schools recommend a wetsuit, commonly 3/2 or 4/3 in the colder months.

Currents

No significant currents in the lagoon riding area; it is naturally enclosed, flat and without open-sea waves or heavy currents.

Conditions

Isola Grande and Santa Maria close the lagoon off from the open sea, which is what keeps the main riding water flat.

The bottom alternates between sand, mud, seagrass and some rocky shallow zones, so walking is possible and not always pleasant.

Shallow water with little circulation gets very warm by late summer.

Open sea, deeper water and small waves are reached near San Teodoro or outside the lagoon, not in the main beginner area.

Your level

BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced

Flat, shallow, enclosed and thick with schools, which is why so many riders take their first lessons here. Intermediates get easy freeride mileage and conditions that build confidence. Advanced riders use the flat sections around Santa Maria and the salt-pan areas for freestyle and wakestyle, and go outside the reserve for open-sea or stronger synoptic days.

The scene

What riders come here for

freestyleflat waterfoilfreeridewakestyleprogression

Who it suitsbeginner

International kite-camp and school village, with many instructors, rental centers, bars and accommodation around Birgi Vecchi and the central spot. Summer days can be busy with lessons and freeriders; riding farther north/south or away from the central shore feels much quieter.

Launch and rules

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

With a school or a boat

16 schools name this spot

See who they are

On your own

Room to launch: huge

Read the access rules

Somewhere else

4 spots nearby

All 4 spots within 40 km are under Nearby

Rescue

Most of the lagoon is standable, so the normal recovery is walking your gear back in and there is no public boat rescue on the water.

Clubs sell an on-call water rescue instead:

EUR 15 per rescue in 2026 for annual and monthly members,
EUR 20 in 2026 on a day pass,
a day club pass at EUR 8 in 2026 and gear storage at EUR 3 a day in 2026.

Several of the southern stations advertise rescue cover.

For a real emergency at sea the numbers are 1530 or 112, or the Marsala maritime office operations room.

Launch

The practical kite shoreline runs for roughly 2 km from a small harbor bay in the south toward the salt pans in the north, with southern, central/main-spot and northern sections.Many schools operate from private or semi-managed bases with grass/sand launch areas, assistance, showers, bars, storage and parking depending on the center.Independent riders should choose the sector that matches the day's wind angle and avoid lesson lanes, bathers and marked/protected areas.

Hazards riders report 17 reported

Wind

Strong frontal Maestrale/Mistral or Scirocco can be gustier and more advanced than the summer thermal.

Crowds and zones

Mud and soft bottom make walking unpleasant in places; rocky zones are also reported.
Crowded launch and lesson areas in summer, especially around the central kite village/main spot.

Bottom

very shallow in places (fin/board strikes)
Very shallow sections can cause fin or board strikes, especially over seagrass, rocks or salt-pan structures.
Anemones settle in the warm shallow water and can raise an allergic reaction, worst on freshly shaved legs.
Stones, sticks and other debris sit in the shallows in places, including a submerged Punic causeway near San Pantaleo.

Protected areas and rules

protected nature reserve - respect posidonia seagrass and marked channels
The lagoon is a nature reserve with birdlife, seagrass and sensitive habitat; avoid disturbing wildlife and stay out of protected or marked areas.
Some riders report lagoon plants/seagrass can irritate legs; long lycra or leggings are suggested by a local school.
Offshore exposure exists if riding outside the lagoon or at some open-sea 'secret spot' options, especially with south wind.
Lagoon plants and seagrass can irritate legs; long lycra or leggings solve it.
Power lines run along the road on the southern side of the lagoon; keep well clear when rigging or walking with a kite.
Boat traffic crosses the lagoon, including the ferries to Mozia.
Hydrofoil is banned inside the reserve, and the depth would punish it anyway.

Other

warm, low-circulation 'stagnant' water in the height of summer
Very strong sun and little shade on the water; sunscreen, lycra and drinking water matter here.

Rules & access

1 min read

2019: Ordinanza 01/2019 of the Marsala maritime office is still the act that governs ordinary kiting inside the reserve.

Riding rules

It allows kitesurf only in daylight and in favourable marine weather, for riders over 14, with under-18s supervised by an adult, and makes a certified helmet and an approved flotation aid compulsory.

Restricted areas

Riding is permitted beyond 300 m from shore, cut to 200 m inside the Isole dello Stagnone reserve, so you body-drag out to that line before putting the board on. Kiting is banned in swimming zones and close to them, within 200 m of fixed fishing installations, nets and mariculture, within 500 m of harbour entrances and within 100 m of a diver's marker.

Hydrofoil is always forbidden in the reserve's water because it is too shallow.

Schools must post a sign carrying these rules in the most visible part of their area, instructors wear a red bib marked INSTRUCTOR, and schools file personnel and craft declarations with the maritime authority.

Current status

2026: the Marsala and Petrosino bathing-safety ordinance keeps the swimmer-reserved strip at 300 m from shore, reduced to 200 m inside the reserve, marked with red buoys.

2024-2026: the Comune di Marsala holds that kiting in the lagoon is permitted subject to sustainable-tourism rules, while environmental groups argue some kite activity and events inside the Natura 2000 reserve require an impact assessment or an updated reserve regulation; check the current position with the Capitaneria, the Comune and the reserve manager before launching.

Helmet and flotation are on the books but reportedly not consistently worn or enforced.

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

Schools that ride here

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Rider tips

Watch Monte Erice for its cap of cloud: that is the thermal coming, usually around midday to early afternoon.
Body-drag out to the 200 m line before you put the board on; inside it you are in the swimmer-reserved strip.
Walk a new sector before riding it. Depth changes over a few metres and the shallows are where fins and boards get destroyed.
Leave the foil at home for the lagoon itself: hydrofoil is banned inside the reserve and the water is too shallow for it anyway.
Wear a helmet and flotation. Both are compulsory under the Capitaneria rules, whatever the rest of the beach is doing.
Sort rescue cover before you need it: a call-out is EUR 15 in 2026 for annual and monthly members and EUR 20 in 2026 on a day pass, and bring leg cover if seagrass irritates you.

Getting there

Airport

Trapani-Birgi (TPS) is the closest airport; Palermo (PMO) is the main alternative.

Route

Most people rent a car, because public transport around Marsala and the lagoon is thin. Trapani-Birgi is 10-15 minutes from the kite bases and Palermo about 1-1.25 hours by road.

Transfer (minutes)

15 from Trapani-Birgi to many kite bases; about 60-75 from Palermo airport, depending on source and traffic.

Cost level

medium

Staying

On-site and nearby options include Resort Santa Maria, kite resorts, B&Bs, villas and apartments around Birgi Vecchi/Lo Stagnone; Marsala and Trapani offer more town services but require a drive to the lagoon.

No-wind days

local listings, Trapani, Erice, the salt pans and windmills, Mozia/Mothia and Santa Maria by authorized boat, San Teodoro beach, Favignana/Egadi Islands, Riserva dello Zingaro, San Vito lo Capo, wineries, cycling, SUP, kayaking and boat trips.

Photos

FAQ

When is the best time to kite Lo Stagnone?

The season runs roughly April to late October, with the steadiest thermal wind from May through September or early October.

Is Lo Stagnone suitable for beginners?

Yes, the shallow, flat, enclosed lagoon with heavy school presence makes it one of the strongest beginner and progression setups in Europe.

What is the wind like at Lo Stagnone?

A warm-season thermal typically fills in from late morning or early afternoon at around 14-20 knots, while spring, autumn and winter can bring stronger Maestrale or Scirocco systems.

Are there rules or restrictions at Lo Stagnone?

A 2019 ordinance limits kiting to daylight hours for riders over 14 with mandatory helmet and flotation aid, and a 2026 bathing-safety ordinance sets a swimmer-reserved zone reduced to 200 m inside the nature reserve.

Are there kite schools at Lo Stagnone?

Yes, the lagoon around Birgi Vecchi hosts many schools and rental centers along its roughly 2 km shoreline.

The bigger pictureEverything about Sicily - Lo Stagnone

Last updated: August 2026