Żarnowska (Łebsko Lake) has no other spot on this map within 40 km of it. straight-line distance
When it fills in
No onset time is published for this spot.
The wind
Direction
Kite sizes
metres · typical quiver highlighted
Character
mixed
Typical strength
15-25 (NW/W, the clean directions)
The quiver, in words
Indicative for a 75-85 kg rider, read off the 15-25 knot NW/W range rather than from local measurement: a 12 m at the light end, a 9 m through the middle, a 7 m at the top. Shallow water means a smaller board is no help if you are underpowered.
Direction to shore
N to W (cleanest)
Dominant direction
NW/W
Forecast
Month by month
- Jan47
- Feb40
- Mar27
- Apr32
- May13
- Jun18
- Jul24
- Aug15
- Sep17
- Oct35
- Nov28
- Dec40
windy days per month (3 h+ at 12 kn+)
- 47%Jan3°
- 40%Feb3°
- 27%Mar4°
- 32%Apr6°
- 13%May10°
- 18%Jun16°
- 24%Jul20°
- 15%Aug20°
- 17%Sep19°
- 35%Oct14°
- 28%Nov10°
- 40%Dec5°
windy days per month (3 h+ at 12 kn+) · water °C below · season highlighted
| Month | Windy days | Force 4+ | 12 kn or more | Knots | From | Peaks at | Air | Water | Readings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 47% | 66% | 56% | 13.1 kt | W | 13:00 | 2.1°C | 2.8°C | 62 |
| Feb | 40% | 51% | 47% | 13.6 kt | W | 13:00 | 3.2°C | 3°C | 57 |
| Mar | 27% | 50% | 40% | 11.3 kt | W | 14:00 | 4.2°C | 3.7°C | 62 |
| Apr | 32% | 50% | 45% | 11.5 kt | NE | 14:00 | 7.2°C | 5.8°C | 60 |
| May | 13% | 27% | 18% | 10.1 kt | NE | 15:00 | 13.1°C | 10°C | 62 |
| Jun | 18% | 33% | 23% | 10.1 kt | W | 15:00 | 16.7°C | 15.5°C | 60 |
| Jul | 24% | 50% | 42% | 11.2 kt | W | 13:00 | 18°C | 19.7°C | 62 |
| Aug | 15% | 32% | 26% | 10.3 kt | W | 15:00 | 19.1°C | 20.3°C | 62 |
| Sep | 17% | 30% | 23% | 9.8 kt | NE | 15:00 | 15.7°C | 18.7°C | 60 |
| Oct | 35% | 52% | 44% | 11.8 kt | W | 13:00 | 11°C | 14.3°C | 62 |
| Nov | 28% | 47% | 35% | 11.2 kt | SW | 12:00 | 4.9°C | 9.6°C | 60 |
| Dec | 40% | 52% | 45% | 13.1 kt | WSW | 13:00 | 2.2°C | 5.4°C | 62 |
modelled
A weather model's cell over this place, not a station on it. Good for comparing places, weaker for one beach.
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
lagoon
Standing depth
Waist-deep through most of the launch area, reportedly as shallow as ~40cm in places.
Tides
Tide-independent. Łebsko is a brackish coastal lagoon whose surface sits about 9 cm below sea level and which connects to the Baltic through the Łeba river, so the level moves with wind push and river flow rather than with tide.
Temperature
22°C summer
Wetsuit
shorty or 3/2 in summer; thick winter suit needed for cold-season sessions
Your level
The scene
What riders come here for
How busy
low
Launch and rules
three ways on to the water, and what each one asks of you
With a school or a boat
No school names this spot
Nobody has been recorded teaching or running a boat here.
On your own
Room to launch: huge
Somewhere else
No neighbour on record
No other spot in the atlas sits within reach of this one.
Rescue
Launch
Route 213 toward Łeba, turn off at Żarnowska and follow the lake's east shore. Park on the lakeside meadow and rig on grass with a little sand under it, no walk-in to the water.Under the 2025 park order the only sanctioned water access here is the 100 m strip left of the village pier and the old fishing quay, and the 300 m band of water along the Żarnowski peninsula sits outside the open area.
Space
huge
Rules & access
- Słowiński National Park Director's Regulation No. 27 (2014) bans kiteboarding on Lake Łebsko outright while still permitting sailing, windsurfing and kayaking, the outcome of years of conflict between kitesurfers and ecologists over bird-nesting habitat in the shallow shore zone riders launch from. Żarnowska has nonetheless kept being treated as a normal, rideable spot, with a school working the area.Nothing found here confirms the ban's 2026 enforcement status, or whether a permitted zone was later carved out.
- Kitesurfing is not allowed on Lake Łebsko, and that is current. Słowiński National Park's access order Zarządzenie nr 6/2025, signed 21 January 2025, opens two parts of the lake to recreation all year and lists the sports permitted there: windsurfing, sailing in registered boats, stand-up paddling and kayaking. Kitesurfing is named and excluded.
- 2025 order: the eastern open water runs from the viewing pier and tower at Rąbka in the north to the tip of the Żarnowski peninsula in the south, outside the shoreline reed belt, and it cuts out a 300 m band of water along the peninsula itself.The single exception inside that band is the launching and mooring strip within 100 m to the left of the pier at Żarnowska, plus the quay of the old fishing harbour in the village.
- 2025 order: going onto the lake outside the designated area is prohibited, and so is entering the belt of shoreline reeds and the reed islands, other than the stretch needed to get from a launch or mooring point to open water. Combustion engines are banned.Only registered craft up to 7.5 m overall, or non-combustion mechanical drive up to 15 kW, may be used, with one lifejacket per person aboard.
- 2025 order: the sea inside the park is open only to 75 m offshore along the marked beach sections in the Rąbka and Rowy/Smołdziński Las protection districts, and no floating craft at all is allowed there except rescue-service equipment. The coast inside the park is therefore not a legal fallback launch.
Access rules drift faster than anything else we hold — check locally, and propose an edit if this has changed.
Rider tips
- Call a Łeba school or the park before you load the car: the 2014 kiteboarding ban on Łebsko has never been clearly lifted.
- Turn off route 213 at Żarnowska, follow the lake's east shore, park on the meadow and rig on the grass.
- Ride the N to W directions; off anything else the wind goes gusty across the lake.
- Keep out of the shallow shore vegetation and away from nesting birds, which is what the whole dispute was about.
- Shorty or 3/2 in summer with water around 22 C, a thick winter suit if you come in the cold season.
- Expect a soft, grassy bottom in places along the east shore, so watch your footing when you body-drag back in.
- Kitesurfing on Łebsko is prohibited, and the January 2025 park order names the sport and excludes it, while leaving windsurfing, sailing, SUP and kayaking open. Treat this page as background, not as a plan.
- The school people point you at, AIRMAN, now runs its kite courses on Łeba's western sea beach at the Fly Resort, not on the lake.
- If you are on the water legally in something else, the launch and mooring strip is the 100 m to the left of the Żarnowska pier, or the old fishing quay.
- Stay out of the reed belt and the reed islands. That shallow vegetation is where the birds are and where the whole dispute started.
- The park's stretch of sea coast is no fallback: it is open to 75 m offshore and closed to every kind of craft except rescue services.
- Łeba, twenty minutes away, holds the beds; the moving dunes are next door for the flat days.
Getting there
Airport
GDN Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport (~2h drive)
Route
Self-drive: route 213 to Łeba, then east along the shore of Lake Łebsko to Żarnowska.
Transfer
120 min
Cost level
budget
Staying
Łeba town holds the hotels, pensions and campsites for the whole area.
No-wind days
The shifting dunes of Słowiński National Park, Poland's only mobile-dune field, sit right next to the lake.
Photos
FAQ
Is Żarnowska suitable for beginners?
Yes, the flat-to-choppy freshwater lake with small waves in stronger westerlies is described as welcoming to all levels.
What is the wind like at Żarnowska?
The cleanest wind comes from north to west; other directions are more variable.
What is the launch like at Żarnowska?
Riders park directly on a lakeside meadow along the east shore, with a grass-and-sand launch and no walk required.
Last updated: August 2026