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Map › Italy › Sardegna — Stagno di Mistras to Capo Mannu › Stagno di Mistras

Sardegna · Cabras / Sinis, west Sardinia · Aristanis/Oristano · San Giovanni di Sinis / Cabras

Stagno di Mistras

also known as Laguna di Mistras, Mistras, Sardinia / Stagno Di Mistras

lagoonbeginner-friendlylow crowds
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Nearby Torre Grande 3 km · Funtana Meiga 8 km · Capo Mannu 16 km · straight-line distance

SeasonJan to Decthe months riders and schools nameHow windy15-20 ktthermalLaunchsmallaccess rules on record, belowWaterlagoon25.3°C in summer · 4 things riders flagLevelBeginner to advancedwith a caveat, in the Level sectionSchools3named at this spotFrom the airport132 minCagliari (CAG)

On the clock

14:00 · 17:00

The thermal shape is clear in the modelled record: about 6.5 kt overnight, building from mid-morning, 9-10 kt between 14:00 and 17:00, easing back through the evening. That is an average across all days. A Maestrale gale runs day and night and ignores the cycle entirely, which is what the winter and early-spring numbers are made of.

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.

Mistras is a shallow lagoon behind San Giovanni di Sinis, west of Cabras, and the riding is knee-deep flat water with a small patch of grass and hard sand to rig on. NW Maestrale is the wind that works, running clean across the water; SE Scirocco also delivers. No tide to think about.
The catch is not the conditions, it is permission: the lagoon is designated ZSC, ZPS, Ramsar and Natura 2000 habitat, and entering or driving in interdicted areas is sanctionable. The 2013 record pulls both ways, one account has kitesurfers denounced for ignoring prohibitions and another states plainly that kitesurfing at Mistras is allowed, and nothing since has settled it.
Ask a school in Cabras or the marine protected area office what is permitted this season before you carry a kite down the sand road. Summer water is 25.3 C, winter 13.7 C, and beach users are absent year-round. If nobody will confirm the access, Torre Grande up the coast gives you a normal beach and no argument.

The wind

locals call it Maestrale, Scirocco

Direction

beachwater
wind blows away from land — rescue cover matters here

Kite sizes

7891011121314151617

metres · typical quiver highlighted

Character

thermal

fills in: The thermal shape is clear in the modelled record: about 6.5 kt overnight, building from mid-morning, 9-10 kt between 14:00 and 17:00, easing back through the evening. That is an average across all days. A Maestrale gale runs day and night and ignores the cycle entirely, which is what the winter and early-spring numbers are made of.

Typical strength

A working Maestrale runs 15-20 kt over the lagoon, the strongest tenth of those hours near 20 kt, and the coast a few kilometres north sees the NW set in at 20-25 kt when it means it. Across the whole year the modelled mean is about 8 kt and roughly a fifth of daylight hours reach 12 kt, so this is a forecast-and-drive spot rather than a turn-up spot. December to April carry 20-23% of hours over 12 kt; May, September and October drop to 11-13%. Modelled reanalysis plus a nearby-coast figure, no measurement in the lagoon itself.

NW Maestrale is the reliable one, running across the lagoon and keeping the water flat. SE Scirocco works too.
Every month is listed as a best month. Torre Grande up the coast gets spring and summer thermal amplification on NW wind, and Mistras itself is ridden as flat-water freestyle.

Also on record

8

The quiver, in words

For a 75-85 kg rider a 9-10 m covers a proper Maestrale at 18-22 kt, and a 12 m covers the 14-16 kt days that make up most of the rideable hours. Below that, which is most of the calendar, it is a 15 m or a foil.Knee-deep water makes an oversized kite cheap to walk back and expensive to crash. Sizes are worked out from the modelled wind, not from a local kite report.

Direction to shore

From the San Giovanni side the NW Maestrale comes off the land and blows out across the lagoon: cross-offshore, and the reason the water stays flat. SE Scirocco reaches the same rigging area from the opposite quarter, cross-onshore.Downwind in a Maestrale is not open sea but the far shore of a protected wetland, which is the last place you want to walk out. Read off the lagoon layout rather than a posted local description.

Dominant direction

NW, SE

Forecast

Month by month

  1. Jan, riders' month51
  2. Feb, riders' month47
  3. Mar, riders' month65
  4. Apr, riders' month63
  5. May, riders' month46
  6. Jun, riders' month63
  7. Jul, riders' month72
  8. Aug, riders' month63
  9. Sep, riders' month66
  10. Oct, riders' month40
  11. Nov, riders' month53
  12. Dec, riders' month45

per cent of the month at force 4 or more

Ringed months are the ones riders and schools name: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec.

  1. 13Jan15°
  2. 12Feb14°
  3. 13Mar15°
  4. 14Apr17°
  5. 11May19°
  6. 12Jun23°
  7. 13Jul25°
  8. 13Aug26°
  9. 12Sep24°
  10. 11Oct23°
  11. 13Nov20°
  12. 13Dec17°

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

MonthForce 4+KnotsFromAirWater
Jan51%13 ktNW11.1°C15°C
Feb47%12.1 ktNW11.2°C14.3°C
Mar65%13.4 ktESE12.9°C15.2°C
Apr63%13.9 ktNW14.8°C16.5°C
May46%11.4 ktNW18.6°C19.2°C
Jun63%12.2 ktNW23.5°C22.8°C
Jul72%13 ktNW26.4°C25.2°C
Aug63%12.7 ktNW26.1°C25.8°C
Sep66%12.4 ktNNW23.5°C24°C
Oct40%10.9 ktESE20.7°C22.5°C
Nov53%13 ktNW16.6°C19.9°C
Dec45%12.5 ktNW12.8°C16.5°C
modelled

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

Modelled from weather reanalysis on a 10–25 km grid (2022-2024), not a ground station: reliable for trade and synoptic winds, understates thermal sea breezes and valley winds. 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.

ERA5 reanalysis grid point (modelled) · Open-Meteo historical weather API — ECMWF ERA5/ERA5-Land reanalysis, not a ground station · 2022-2024

The water

Type

lagoon

Standing depth

A large knee-deep area.

Tides

Tide independent.

Temperature

25.3°C summer · 13.7°C winter

Wetsuit

Shorts or shorty suggested in summer, shorty/normal wetsuit in spring and fall, and normal/thick wetsuit in winter.

14–26°C water
A shallow, flat lagoon: clear water over a large knee-deep area, flat enough near Oristano that people bring freestyle boards.

Your level

beginnerintermediateadvanced
Knee-deep flat water covers beginner, intermediate and expert on paper. Because the access rules are unresolved, a beginner should come with a local school rather than self-launch.

The scene

What riders come here for

freestylelearningflat water
Remote lagoon in protected wetland rather than a resort beach, with beach users typically absent. On some summer days in 2013 dozens of kitesurfers were on the water.

Launch and rules

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

With a school or a boat

3 schools name this spot

See who they are

On your own

Room to launch: small

access rules on record

Somewhere else

Torre Grande, 3 km

Every spot within 40 km is on the map at the top of this page, with its distance under it.

Rescue

None. No lifeguard, no patrol, no school posted on the water, and the nearest help is whoever you drove in with. Depth is the safety net: knee-deep over the riding area, so a dead kite is a walk rather than a swim, and a long one.
Emergencies go to 1530, the Coast Guard's national number, or to 112.

Launch

Small grass and hard-sand rigging area, reached from San Giovanni di Sinis along a sand road.

Space

small

Hazards riders report 4

  • protected wetland with sensitive bird habitat
  • unauthorized vehicle access in the lagoon area is sanctionable
  • small launch area
  • access/rules uncertainty for kitesurfing inside the lagoon
Rules & access
2026 status still unconfirmed. There is no kitesurf-specific rule, but Stagno di Mistras is ZSC, ZPS, Ramsar and Natura 2000 habitat, and unauthorized entry or circulation in interdicted areas is sanctionable (2025), enforced by the regional forestry and environmental corps at Oristano, which has fined visitors for driving into closed ground here.
Two 2013 local accounts conflict: one has kitesurfers at Mistras denounced for ignoring prohibitions, the other states plainly that kitesurfing at Mistras is allowed. The marine protected area office at Cabras is the place to ask before you travel, on info.ampsinis@comune.cabras.or.it or +39 0783 391097, though its own rulebook, consolidated in 2011 with a 2026 supplementary schedule of fees and penalties, governs the sea by zone and does not name kitesurfing or the lagoon.

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

Rider tips

  • Ask a local school or the Cabras / Area Marina Sinis office which access route is permitted before you enter the lagoon.
  • Leave the car on the sand road: driving into the wetland or an interdicted track is sanctionable.
  • Keep off the nesting and resting areas, however good the wind looks from the track.
  • Rig tight on the grass and hard sand; the setup area is small and there is no second option.
  • If permission is unclear, ride Torre Grande or another Oristano-coast beach with plain public access.
  • Write to the marine protected area office at Cabras before you travel: info.ampsinis@comune.cabras.or.it, +39 0783 391097.
  • Winter and early spring hold the wind here, not summer. December to April carry roughly twice the share of windy hours that May and October do.
  • In NW the far shore is protected wetland. Stay upwind of the middle of the lagoon so a walk home never becomes a walk across habitat.

Getting there

Airport

Cagliari (CAG) is the practical arrival; Alghero (AHO) is marginally closer in a straight line.

Route

Drive from San Giovanni di Sinis down a sand road to the lagoon. Cagliari Airport is 87.8 km from Cabras and Alghero Airport 80.3 km, but Cagliari is the one with usable public transport.

Transfer

132 min

Cost level

medium

Staying

Beds in Cabras, Oristano, San Giovanni di Sinis and Torre Grande. Nothing at the lagoon launch itself is listed.

No-wind days

Sinis Peninsula · Tharros · San Giovanni di Sinis · Cabras wetlands · Is Arutas · Torre Grande · Capo Mannu surf area

Photos

Flamingoes, Cabras, Province of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy - panoramio
trolvag, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Last updated: August 2026