Mini user guide to foiling with Windy.app

Learn about the five most important things about weather forecasting for foiling with Windy.app. This guide works primarally for all types of foiling with kites, sails and just a surfboards and SUPs (surf foiling) but also for sailing with a hydrofoil. To get more information about each of these sports, read the appropriate mini user guides on them.

1. Find a foiling spot near your location and create a route to it

The Windy.app contains a huge database of thousands of both the most popular and less known spots that only local foilers know about. The database is constantly updated and corrected for possible inaccuracies. This means that you can be sure to find the best wind and waves in the app.

Considering that foiling is a kind of kite- and windsurfing, as well as surfing, the same spots are suitable for this sport, and in the case of yachting with hydrofoils — marinas and ports. In the app you can find all these types of spots individually and together on one map.

Let's take the popular Nazare surf spot on the west coast of Portugal near Lisbon as an example.

To find the closest foil spot to you, first of all, activate the geolocation function in the general Settings of the app. Then you can find a spot in two ways: via Search on the app's Home screen and on the Weather map where you can also use the search or you can find spots via the kite, sail and surfboard icons, or marinas in case of sailing. To get this done faster, hide the rest of the spots in the Advanced Settings of this map.

Spot search on the Home screen of the Windy.app for iOS

Spot search on the Weather map in the Windy.app for iOS

Showing and hiding spots on the Weather map in the Windy.app for iOS

The app also allows you to navigate to a spot using one of two popular map services: Apple Maps or Google Maps. To create a route, go to the page of the spot and click on the three-dot icon to the right of its name.

Route to spot feature in the Windy.app for iOS

2. Activate Foil Weather Profile and read the swell, wind and weather forecast

The Foil Weather Profile is one of 12 profiles with a set of ready-to-use weather elements for different sports and outdoor activities. Activate it through the icon to the right of the list of weather models.

Foil Weather Profile preview in the Windy.app for iOS

The profile contains a detailed and accurate swell, wind and weather forecasts that includes all the basic elements without which it is impossible to surf, namely swell size (or swell height), swell direction, swell period and swell energy for swell, and wind speed and direction for wind.

Learn how to read swell and wind forecasts in a separate blog articles. Learn more about basic meteorology for sailing as well.

In addition to this in the profile, you also get data about sea currents, water temperature, tides, wind gusts and other things.

Foil weather profile forecast forecast in the Windy.app for iOS

3. Look at the bigger weather picture of your regions on the Weather Map

Sometimes the weather forecast and spot information are not enough — you need a big picture. And the Windy.app also has it.

To get an overview of the Swell for a larger area, go from the spot page or from the app's Home screen to the same Weather map and select the Swell layer. You now see a Live swell map for the entire world. Zoom in and out of the map to make it more or less detailed. Read a separate tutorial on how to read the Swell map in the Windy.app.

Swell map in the Windy.app for iOS

To see a bigger picture of the wind, just switch the map layer to Wind or Wind gusts, and the Wind archive.

Wind gusts in the Windy.app for iOS

For yachting, activate Weather Fronts and Isobar, which help you predict weather changes in the region, through the Map Settings.

Weather fronts in the Windy.app for iOS

4. Don't miss the best wind on the spot and choose the right kite size

To avoid missing the best wind, set notifications by specifying the desired parameters, including speed and direction, time interval, etc.

Wind alerts in the Windy.app for iOS

If the kite's too small, there won't be enough traction, and a too large one is dangerous. How to choose the right one? It depends on the wind speed and your weight. To enter your weight to the app, so it could recommend you a kite or windsurf sail size, go to Settings, then Units. Then, choose the Kite or Windsurf weather profiles in the forecast. Now you see the size recommendations on every spot — depending on the wind speed.

Kite size recommendation in the Windy.app for iOS

5. Get information and tips about the spot from the local foilers

On the screen of each almost spot, you will also find a section called “Spot Info”. This is a kind of mini-database inside the spots database, which contains the main non-weather parameters of the spot itself.

Spot info section in the Windy.app for iOS

Spot info for Nazare surfing spot in the Windy.app for iOS

Open the section to find out which season this particular spot has the best wind and waves as well as the information about the seabed, best tides, working swell and wind directions, type of break, wave height range, and traffic (how crowded it is). The section also includes photos of the spot.

In addition to this information, you can ask and get specific advice from surfers on the spot about the best times to ride and more. To do this, go to the spot’s Chat by clicking on its avatar — the round icon to the left of the spot’s name. If the spot does not have its own chat, you will get into the chat of the nearest larger spot.

Photos of the Nazare surfing spot in the Windy.app Community

Updated on August 9, 2022.

Text: Ivan Kuznetsov, an outdoor journalist, editor and writer from the Dolomites, Italy, and Karelia, Finland, with 10 years of professional experience. His favorite sports are hiking, cycling and sauna. Read his other articles

Cover photo: Uniqsurface / Unsplash