Map › Italy › Abruzzo — Francavilla Foro to Tortuga Montesilvano › Tortuga Montesilvano

Abruzzo · Border of Montesilvano and Pescara · Pescara · Montesilvano

Tortuga Montesilvano

also known as Tortuga, Surfing Sports Montesilvano, Pescara Tortuga

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JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

On this page

Wind
- Month by month
Forecast
Water
Level
The scene
Launch
- Rescue
Hazards
Rules & access
Schools
Tips
Getting there
Photos
FAQ

Nearby Madonnina di Pescara 5 km · Pescara Portanuova 6 km · Francavilla Foro 12 km · Stazione di Tollo 18 km · Spiaggia dei Saraceni 26 km · Fossacesia Marina 39 km · straight-line distance

SeasonMay to Septhe months riders and schools name How windy12 ktsynoptic Launchmediumaccess rules on record, below Watersea26.6°C in summer · 8 things riders flag LevelIntermediate to advancedwith a caveat, in the Level section Schools2named at this spot From the airport10 minPescara (PSR)

On the clock

11:00 · 12:00 · 15:00 · 18:00 · 19:00

In summer the usable hours are the afternoon sea breeze: modelled wind is near-still overnight, starts building around 11:00, peaks between 12:00 and 15:00, and collapses by 18:00 to 19:00. The northerly synoptic days that make the drive worth it hold through the day instead of following that curve. Indicative modelling, no local measurement.

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.

Tortuga is a kite and wingfoil beach on the north side of Pescara, right on the Montesilvano boundary, at the Surfing Sports base at Stabilimento Balneare Tortuga, Via Aldo Moro 21. It runs on northern-quadrant wind, NW through NE, and on nothing else.

The water is choppy with small wave sets coming in on your right, and there is enough distance between the shoreline and the rocks to manoeuvre, though the breakwaters along this stretch want a wide berth.

It is an intermediate spot rather than a place to teach yourself: no rescue cover is confirmed and nobody has recorded the kite sizes local riders use.

May through September is the season on paper, but the Abruzzo bathing period runs 23 May to 20 September 2026 and the kitesurf rules for that window sit in a separate regulation that has not been published in detail. Water is 26.6 C in August and 12.8 C in January, so the cold-season northerly days are full-wetsuit days.

The wind

locals call it Maestrale, Tramontana, Grecale

Direction

wind blows away from land — rescue cover matters here

Character

synoptic

fills in: In summer the usable hours are the afternoon sea breeze: modelled wind is near-still overnight, starts building around 11:00, peaks between 12:00 and 15:00, and collapses by 18:00 to 19:00. The northerly synoptic days that make the drive worth it hold through the day instead of following that curve. Indicative modelling, no local measurement.

Typical strength

No local station record. In modelled hourly wind, hours over 12 kt are two to three times more common from October to April than in June, July and August, and what summer produces is a short afternoon breeze rather than a working wind. The sessions worth planning for are the cold-season and shoulder-season northerlies. Indicative only.

Northern-quadrant winds are what work here. No thermal schedule and no average kiteable wind strength are confirmed.

May through September are the best months on the Pescara coast. At Tortuga itself the sessions follow northerly wind events rather than a season.

Direction to shore

The shoreline here faces NE, and that splits the northerly quadrant the spot runs on. NE is straight onshore. N comes in cross-shore from the left, NNW is cross-shore leaning offshore, and NW blows side-offshore along the beach.SE is cross-shore from the right. Anything from SW is straight out to sea.

Forecast

Month by month

riding season from the spot record · no wind series here is trusted enough to name a season

Jan10
Feb9
Mar5
Apr10
May, riders' month2
Jun, riders' month0
Jul, riders' month3
Aug, riders' month3
Sep, riders' month5
Oct8
Nov12
Dec13

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

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

The model is wrong here

The model reads 13% of days at its best month, which does not sit with the season this record states. The figures are kept and drawn as hatching so no wind colour can be read off them, and the ringed months are the ones riders name.

Month	Windy days	Force 4+	12 kn or more	Knots	From	Peaks at	Air	Water	Readings
Jan	10%	21%	16%	7.5 kt	SW	12:00	8.1°C	11.8°C	62
Feb	9%	21%	16%	7.3 kt	SW	14:00	8.8°C	11.5°C	57
Mar	5%	11%	10%	7.9 kt	E	14:00	10.7°C	13.4°C	62
Apr	10%	18%	15%	8.2 kt	ENE	14:00	13.4°C	15.7°C	60
May	2%	8%	3%	7.5 kt	E	14:00	18.3°C	18.8°C	62
Jun	0%	5%	5%	7.5 kt	E	14:00	23.4°C	24.1°C	60
Jul	3%	6%	6%	8.1 kt	NE	14:00	26.8°C	28.3°C	62
Aug	3%	5%	3%	8.1 kt	NNE	14:00	26.1°C	28.8°C	62
Sep	5%	22%	15%	8.8 kt	E	14:00	21.7°C	25.9°C	60
Oct	8%	15%	13%	7.3 kt	ENE	14:00	18.9°C	22°C	62
Nov	12%	17%	15%	7.6 kt	SW	14:00	13.1°C	17.6°C	60
Dec	13%	19%	16%	7.5 kt	SW	10:00	9.6°C	13.5°C	62

riders' months

Riders and schools name these months. The model reads lower here, and both are shown rather than averaged.

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. 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

Tides

Small Adriatic tide range, typically a few tenths of a metre a day at Pescara, so nothing about the kite setup depends on tide.

Temperature

26.6°C summer · 12.8°C winter

Wetsuit

Boardshorts or a light top are usually enough in peak summer; a full winter wetsuit is needed in cold-season northerly sessions.

12–29°C water

Mostly choppy with small wave sets to rider's right. Montesilvano's August average water temperature is 26.6 C and January average is 12.8 C.

Your level

not for beginners hereintermediateadvanced

An intermediate spot. Beginner-school conditions at this exact launch are unconfirmed, and the rocks and breakwaters mean you want to be self-sufficient.

The scene

What riders come here for

freeridechopsmall waveswingfoilwindsurf

Local kiters use it. The actual crowd level is unconfirmed.

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: medium

access rules on record

Somewhere else

Madonnina di Pescara, 5 km

Madonnina di Pescara Pescara Portanuova Francavilla Foro

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

Rescue

Nothing is organised for kitesurfers. What exists is the bathing-season duty the maritime ordinance places on beach concessions: at least one qualified lifeguard per 150 m of sea frontage, more where groynes block the view, a station placed to see the whole stretch it covers and equipped with binoculars, fins, mask and snorkel, a rescue can or tube, and a rafting-type helmet for interventions near breakwaters and groynes, which is what this shoreline is made of.

In the 2024 edition of the ordinance the duty ran the last two weekends of May, then daily 09:00-19:00 from 1 June to 15 September, then the last two weekends of September; those dated weekends shift each year. When the service is off, a red flag goes up and a sign warns that swimming is unsafe. At sea the numbers are 1530 for the coastguard and 112.

Launch

Beach at Stabilimento Balneare Tortuga on Via Aldo Moro, at the Montesilvano-Pescara boundary by the Surfing Sports centre, with enough distance between the shoreline and rocks to manoeuvre.

Space

medium

Rules & access

The document that governs launching here is the maritime safety ordinance for the Pescara district, signed in Pescara on 29 March 2024 and covering the comuni of Pescara, Montesilvano and Citta Sant'Angelo.

A launch corridor needs a municipal authorisation, and one usable by kitesurfers must run at least 500 m offshore, measure 30 m wide at the water's edge and 80 m wide from 250 m out to its seaward end, be marked with yellow or orange buoys joined by floating line at intervals of no more than 20 m over the first 100 m and no more than 50 m beyond that, carry white flags on the outermost buoys and a sign ashore reading that bathing is prohibited and the corridor is reserved for craft in transit.

Inside the corridor, swimming, stopping, mooring and anchoring are banned, sailing craft including sailboards must pass with maximum care, and motor craft are held to 3 knots. The slipway areas municipalities set aside for launching small fishing and leisure boats, and the corridors serving them, may not be used by surfers or kitesurfers at all.

Day-to-day rules for windsurf, kitesurf and the rest during the bathing season are left to a separate regulation that this ordinance does not contain. The Abruzzo regional bathing period for 2026 runs 23 May to 20 September 2026.

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

Rider tips

Only make the trip when the forecast has a northerly component; NW to NE is what this beach wants.
Check the bathing-season access rules before rigging, since the Abruzzo period runs 23 May to 20 September 2026.
Give the rocks and breakwaters a wide margin in chop and small wave sets.
Ask at the Surfing Sports centre on Via Aldo Moro for the current launch arrangement.
Only make the trip when the forecast has a northerly component; NE is the one that is genuinely onshore here.
NW looks like a working direction on paper and blows side-offshore on this stretch of coast; treat it accordingly.
Do not launch from the boat slipway or its corridor: the ordinance closes those to kitesurfers.
Summer afternoons are a short thermal window; the strong days are spring, autumn and winter northerlies.

Getting there

Airport

Abruzzo Airport, Pescara (PSR)

Route

The spot is on the urban seafront at Stabilimento Balneare Tortuga, Via Aldo Moro 21, on the Montesilvano-Pescara boundary. Abruzzo Airport is 9 km away, about 10 minutes by road, and Pescara and Montesilvano are joined by local road and rail.

Transfer

10 min

Staying

Urban beach hotels and apartments are available in Montesilvano and Pescara; no kite-specific lodging is listed.

No-wind days

Pescara and Montesilvano beach services, sailing/SUP/surf lessons through Surfing Sports, and the Abruzzo coast towns nearby.

Photos

Spiaggia montesilvano — Comune di Montesilvano, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

FAQ

What is the wind like?

Tortuga works mainly with wind from NW through NE; no thermal schedule or average strength is documented.

Is it suitable for beginners?

No, it is classed as an intermediate spot; no beginner-school conditions were verified at the exact launch.

When is the best time to go?

May through September is the listed season.

What hazards are there?

Rocks and breakwaters along the shoreline, plus choppy water and small wave sets when the northerly wind blows.

Last updated: August 2026