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Salacgrīva

Limbažu novads · Baltic coast

also known as Salacgriva beach, Salacas ieteka, Kapteiņu Osta

Part of Baltic coast →

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

flat waternot for beginnersmedium 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–Oct

Months riders and schools name

How windy

8-16 kt

Character: mixed

Room to launch

Maintained beach; no measured rigging width was found.

access rules on record, below

Water

sea and river; flat-to-chop in the river and relatively calm Gulf of Riga coastal water

17–20 °C in summerBoth the town/river-mouth beach and the nearby Kapteiņu Osta marina area are used for launching

Hazards

Reported by riders

Level

Intermediate to advanced

With a caveat: see Your level

BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced

Crowds

medium crowds · busy June July August

Schools

named at this spot

From the airport

135 min

Riga International Airport (RIX)

When it fills in

No onset time is published for this spot.

Nearbystraight-line distance

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

Saulkrasti

The spot

Salacgrīva sits at the mouth of the Salaca on the Gulf of Riga, near the Estonian border, and the name covers two different launches. One is the town beach at the river mouth, where the water in the Salaca away from the fairway is about 50 cm deep. The other is Kapteņu Osta by the marina: sand bottom, shallow, calmer gulf water in front of it.

Which launch to use

Sort out which one the locals are using before you unload, because the record does not settle it. The fairway is live, with boat traffic and navigation marks in the river, so it is a poor place to be learning a body drag. West to northwest is the favourable sector for the Kapteņu Osta shore; N, W or SW are the directions given for Salacgrīva itself.

Season and water

Season is May to October, with summer water at 17-20 C and winter around 2-3. Sunny days fill the town beach with beach users, which is the other reason to know where you are launching.

The wind

Direction

Direction to shore

North, west and southwest are the working sector for the town beach at the Salaca mouth. For Kapteinu osta the published sectors disagree: west to north-west onto the gulf shore in one reading, south and south-west ridden between the harbour moles in another. Settle it locally before you drive out.

Dominant direction

N/W/SW to NW depending on exact launch

Kite sizes

67891011121314151617

metres · typical quiver highlighted

The quiver, in words

Nothing published for this spot.Indicative for a 75-85 kg rider, read off the monthly wind range rather than measured here: 12-15 m on a summer 8-12 kt day, 10-12 m when it reaches the mid teens, 8-9 m on a winter blow past 20 kt.Foil or big twin-tip if you want to use the light-wind half of the season.

Character

mixed

Average strength

8-16 kt monthly average range

Typical strength

Monthly averages range roughly 8-16 kt, with summer averages around 8-10 kt and higher winter values.

Seasonal Baltic/Gulf synoptic wind. No reliable daily thermal cycle is documented for this spot.

May to October is the season. Wind-day counts and average speeds peak in the colder months, so winter riding works if you carry the neoprene for it.

Forecast

Live forecast

Windguru Windfinder Windy

Month by month

Jan69
Feb58
Mar47
Apr32
May, riders' month29
Jun, riders' month32
Jul, riders' month42
Aug, riders' month35
Sep, riders' month38
Oct, riders' month60
Nov55
Dec45

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

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

69%Jan1°
58%Feb0°
47%Mar1°
32%Apr5°
29%May12°
32%Jun18°
42%Jul21°
35%Aug21°
38%Sep19°
60%Oct13°
55%Nov7°
45%Dec4°

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	69%	73%	71%	16.5 kt	S	12:00	-1.9 °C	0.9 °C	62
Feb	58%	74%	68%	14.9 kt	S	13:00	0.1 °C	0.3 °C	57
Mar	47%	63%	60%	13.6 kt	S	11:00	1.5 °C	1.2 °C	62
Apr	32%	62%	42%	12.5 kt	NNW	13:00	5.9 °C	5.1 °C	60
May	29%	44%	37%	11 kt	NW	13:00	11.6 °C	12.4 °C	62
Jun	32%	43%	40%	11.7 kt	NW	14:00	16.8 °C	18.4 °C	60
Jul	42%	66%	61%	13.8 kt	SW	14:00	18.2 °C	20.7 °C	62
Aug	35%	53%	45%	12.6 kt	W	13:00	19 °C	20.7 °C	62
Sep	38%	48%	45%	12.2 kt	S	13:00	14.7 °C	19 °C	60
Oct	60%	71%	68%	16.2 kt	WSW	12:00	9.1 °C	12.6 °C	62
Nov	55%	72%	70%	16.1 kt	SSW	09:00	3.6 °C	7.4 °C	60
Dec	45%	63%	58%	15 kt	ESE	12:00	-0.1 °C	3.5 °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

sea and river; flat-to-chop in the river and relatively calm Gulf of Riga coastal water

Standing depth

Reported about 50 cm depth in the Salaca river away from the fairway.

Tides

Not documented. Tide is not a planning factor in the Gulf of Riga.

Temperature

Summer 17–20 °C

Winter (°C) around 2-3

Modelled monthly average: 0–21 °C

Wetsuit

Needed outside the warm summer days; no local thickness guidance was found.

Currents

Strong onshore wind can reportedly make the river current neutral or even negative; no measured current data found.

Conditions

Both the town/river-mouth beach and the nearby Kapteiņu Osta marina area are used for launching; riders should confirm the exact launch with locals.

Your level

BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced

not for beginners here

One version marks Kapteņu Osta as intermediate, another puts Salacgrīva at every level. Because the city beach and river mouth include a working fairway and navigation signs, this record stays conservative for unsupervised beginners.

The scene

What riders come here for

family-friendlyeasy accessfreeridefreestylequiet coastal sessionsfamily beach day

Quiet small-town Gulf of Riga spot; the town beach can become crowded on sunny days.

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: Maintained beach; no measured rigging width was found.

Read the access rules

Somewhere else

3 spots nearby

All 3 spots within 40 km are under Nearby

Rescue

+371 67323103

Rescue — full text1 min read

No lifeguard service is documented for the town beach or for the marina.

Sea emergencies run through 112 or through the maritime rescue coordination centre in Riga on +371 67323103, which keeps a continuous radiotelephony watch on VHF Ch 16 and works on Ch 71; the same centre is the Latvian search-and-rescue point of contact.

Both Salacgriva and Kuivizi are working harbours, so port traffic is often the nearest hull to you.

Launch

Beach launch around Salacgrīva and/or Kapteiņu Osta: a maintained beach with easy town access, with the Kapteiņu Osta spot by the marina.

Hazards riders report 9 reported

Wind

the harbour moles at Kapteinu osta, which is where the south-wind line runs and is an experienced-rider proposition

Crowds and zones

Salaca river fairway and boat traffic
crowding on sunny city-beach days
port waters with a 5-knot limit and working harbour traffic at both Salacgriva and Kuivizi

Waves and currents

river current going neutral or negative in strong onshore wind

Other

navigation signs in the river
exact launch ambiguity between town beach/river mouth and Kapteiņu Osta marina
exact launch ambiguity between town beach/river mouth and Kapteinu Osta marina
no lifeguard cover anywhere here, with winter water down around 2-3 C

Rules & access

1 min read

2022: the Salacgriva port regulations cover the river mouth in town and the Kuivizi basin, and they are the rule set that touches this launch.

Swimming and fishing

Swimming, fishing and angling inside the Salacgriva port water are permitted only in a 150 m stretch running from the road bridge over the Salaca toward the river mouth; fishing is banned across the whole Kuivizi port water.

Fairways and speed

The Salacgriva fairway is 3,300 m long and 70 m wide, the Kuivizi fairway 3,500 m by 30 m, and the speed limit inside port waters is 5 knots. Craft under 24 m belong at the floating yacht berths, and boats under 12 m may use unbuilt shoreline only in coordination with the harbour.

Nothing in the regulations names kitesurfing, so the fairway and the port water are places to keep out of, not places you have a right to be.

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

Ask which launch is running before you rig: the town beach at the river mouth, or Kapteņu Osta by the marina.
Stay out of the Salaca fairway and off the navigation marks.
In the river the water away from the fairway is around 50 cm, so expect to walk it out if the wind drops.
Ride it from late spring to early autumn; the wind statistics look stronger in winter, but the water drops to around 2-3 C.
On a sunny weekend the town beach fills with swimmers and sunbathers, so plan your launch corridor around them.
Ask which launch is running before you rig: the town beach at the river mouth, or Kapteinu Osta by the marina.
The town launch sits inside port water where swimming is confined to a 150 m stretch by the Salaca bridge and everything moves at 5 knots. Read that before you set up.
Rescue is a phone call: 112, or the Riga coordination centre on +371 67323103, VHF Ch 16. Nobody is watching the water for you.

Getting there

Airport

Riga International Airport (RIX)

Route

Salacgrīva is on the north Vidzeme coast, about 100 km from Riga. The bus from Riga takes about 2 h 14 min. Kapteņu Osta itself is a seashore accommodation and recreation complex in Kuiviži.

Transfer

135 min

Staying

Kapteņu Osta is right on the seashore; guest houses, apartments, holiday houses fill in the rest around town.

No-wind days

The Salacgrīva tourism information centre covers the local seaside sights: beaches, lighthouses, jetties, plus the nature and culture stops inland.

Photos

FAQ

Is Salacgrīva suitable for beginners?

Sources disagree: one marks the Kapteiņu Osta area as intermediate, while another says Salacgrīva suits all levels, so this record stays conservative for unsupervised beginners.

What is the wind like at Salacgrīva?

North, west and southwest are the directions listed locally, with monthly averages roughly 8-16 knots and higher values in winter.

What hazards should riders know about?

The Salaca river fairway carries boat traffic and navigation signs, and the town beach can get crowded on sunny days.

Are there kite schools near Salacgrīva?

KiteFun LV is listed as a local contact for the spot.

The bigger pictureEverything about Baltic coast

Last updated: August 2026