Rhodes to learn on, Kos for early mornings, Karpathos for wind
Beginners have the easiest time on Rhodes, which teaches at both ends of the island: on the lagoon at Prasonisi, the southern tip, and at Ixia on the west coast close to Rhodes town. Kos rewards anyone willing to get up early, because Kefalos Bay is light and flat before the afternoon. Karpathos is where you go once you fly already and want the wind strong.
All three sit under the meltemi, which arrives from the north west in the Dodecanese, and July and August are the windiest months on Karpathos and Kos.
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| Island and beach | Water | Who we would send there |
|---|---|---|
| Rhodes, Prasonisi lagoon | Flat, on the cross offshore side of the sand strip | First lessons |
| Rhodes, Prasonisi open side | Small waves, onshore, the open Aegean | Riders already comfortable on the foil |
| Rhodes, Ixia | Town side bay on the west coast | Beginners up to freestyle |
| Kos, Kefalos Bay | Flat, cross offshore, light mornings | Beginners in the morning, advanced riders in the afternoon |
| Kos, Marmari | A jet effect from two islands offshore, says Kitesurfing Kos | Afternoons for riders who foil |
| Karpathos, Chicken Bay | Horseshoe bay, 100 m of shallow water | Beginners and intermediates |
| Karpathos, Gun and Devil's Bay | Strong wind and chop | Experts in July and August |
Take a lesson before you rent anything. Kite Prasonisi's rescue boat picks up wing riders only on the flat side, and Kitesurfing Kos rents foil boards only to riders who have finished a beginner course.
Wing foiling at Prasonisi, a sandbar with a sea on each side
A small island at the southern tip of Rhodes is joined to it only by a narrow strip of sand. ProCenter Prasonisi describes how the north westerly meltemi accelerates hard through the gap, leaving flat water on the cross offshore side and small waves on the onshore side, with around 20 m of standing depth off the sandy beach. Kite Prasonisi sends learners to the lagoon and keeps the open Aegean for waves.
Sportif, writing for windsurfers, notes some coral heads in the shallow training area and very strong offshore wind on the downwind side, and calls Prasonisi “best for competent sailors”. The drive from Rhodes airport takes roughly 90 minutes. ProCenter Prasonisi strongly recommends a hire car and lists a few small tavernas and shops nearby, with very little nightlife.
Kite Prasonisi, lessons on the lagoon
Kite Prasonisi runs every beginner wing lesson in the lagoon and a Wave Intro Clinic on the open side for riders already comfortable on the foil. It rents Duotone wings from 2.0 to 8.0 m² and boards from inflatables to downwind boards.
Its rescue boat covers supervised activities in operating hours and, for wing riders, only the flat side. Early morning and sunset sessions go out in offshore wind with no rescue. Lesson prices come on request. An unused prepaid package becomes a voucher valid for one year, and open bill lessons are paid by the hour, by card, PayPal, transfer or cash in euro.
ProCenter Prasonisi, rental with a rescue boat
ProCenter Prasonisi stands on the flat water side, a few meters from the sea, and opens daily from May to early November. Its own wind measurement shows on a screen at reception and live on its website. The center has offered JP and NeilPryde wing gear since 2021, and with the wind blowing side offshore, a powerful rescue boat waits on standby.
ProCenter gives no lessons, though a weekly rental does come with guided group sessions.
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| Rental period | Price |
|---|---|
| 1 hour | €38.50 |
| 5 hours | €161.50 |
| 10 hours | €282 |
| Half day, from 13:00 | €82 |
| 1 day | €98 |
| 3 days | €253 |
| 7 days, booked ahead | €383 |
| 14 days, booked ahead | €613 |
| 21 days, booked ahead | €810 |
Insurance costs extra, €13 for a day or €50 for 7 days booked ahead, and so does the Safety Pack of helmet and vest at €12 a day. Greek law makes a helmet and a vest compulsory on a wing.
Sportif, a UK specialist sports holiday operator, sends windsurf and wing foil pro coaching clinics to Prasonisi for intermediate to advanced riders. It runs no wing school of its own there.
Ixia and Ialysos, the wing bays within reach of Rhodes town
Prasonisi is a long way south for anyone sleeping in Rhodes town or Ialysos. The two wing bays on the west coast near town are the closer choice, and both of them teach.
Surfers Paradise in Ixia
Surfers Paradise is a dedicated wing foil center on Iraklidon Avenue in Ixia, open from April to October, with boards from 45 to 200 liters and wings from 2.0 to 6.5 m². Beginners start with the wing on a beach simulator, move to a high volume board and then rise onto the foil. Experienced riders work on gybes and tacks, jumps and freestyle or racing, with radio helmets for feedback. Lesson prices include insurance, gear, a wetsuit, helmet, impact vest, harness and rescue cover.
ProCenter Rhodes in Ialysos
ProCenter Rhodes rents and teaches wing foil on Ialyssos beach, next to the village of Trianda, from April to October, with wing kit from Fanatic and Duotone, NeilPryde and JP, Tabou and Gaastra. Sportif describes Ialysos bay as a sandy beach with side shore wind from the left and a meltemi boosted by the afternoon thermal. Inshore the water is flat, further out come swell and small ramps. Sportif rates the bay for all levels.
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| Center | Lesson | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Surfers Paradise | Taster, 1.5 hours | €90 |
| Surfers Paradise | Basic, 3 hours | €180 |
| Surfers Paradise | Basic, 4.5 hours | €270 |
| Surfers Paradise | Full, 6 hours | €320 |
| Surfers Paradise | Private lesson | €90 per hour |
| ProCenter Rhodes | Try out, 2 hours semi private, gear for the whole day | €150 |
| ProCenter Rhodes | Starter, 2 days of 2 hours | €270 |
| ProCenter Rhodes | Starter, 3 days of 2 hours | €330 |
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| Center | Rental | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Surfers Paradise | 1 hour | €60 |
| Surfers Paradise | 1 day | €110 |
| Surfers Paradise | 7 days | €420 |
| Surfers Paradise | 14 days | €620 |
| ProCenter Rhodes | 1 week | €390 |
| ProCenter Rhodes | 2 weeks | €550 |
Wing foil Kos at Kefalos Bay and Marmari
Kefalos Windsurfing and Kitesurfing Kos each name their own beach as the windiest on Kos. For Kefalos that is the bay at the south west tip, where the shape of the bay and local thermals speed up the meltemi over flat water with cross offshore wind. For Kitesurfing Kos it is Marmari, where two smaller islands some 8 km off the coast create a jet effect on the north west meltemi.
Kefalos Windsurfing
Beginners get the mornings in Kefalos Bay, light wind on flat water; advanced riders take the afternoons. The center uses Fanatic boards and foils with Duotone and SailLoft wings, and its staff speak English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Danish and Greek.
A week in the rental pool, 6 to 7 days, costs €480 in high season, 10 June to 24 September. Wing gear carries no equipment insurance, so renters and students are liable for loss or damage, and the center advises private insurance.
Kitesurfing Kos in Marmari
Kitesurfing Kos gives its wing lessons and rental in Marmari, at a station some 800 m east of the town center on foot, with VDWS instructors and a rescue boat. Every course lasts two hours. Basic 1 and Basic 2 are ridden on a SUP with a wing; Basic 3 brings the first flights on the foil, with at most two students per teacher. With onshore wind the group practices from the boat.
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| Center | Course | Price per person |
|---|---|---|
| Kitesurfing Kos | Basic 1, wing on a SUP, 2 hours | €125 alone, €105 in a pair, €95 in a group of 3 or more |
| Kitesurfing Kos | Basic 2, courses and jibes on the SUP, 2 hours | €140 alone, €125 in a pair, €110 in a group of 3 or more |
| Kitesurfing Kos | Basic 3, first flights on the foil, 2 hours | €165 alone, €145 in a pair |
| Kefalos Windsurfing | Step 1 introduction, 2 hours with equipment | €120 |
| Kefalos Windsurfing | Private, 1 hour without equipment | €85 |
Kitesurfing Kos rents its Fanatic and Naish gear to riders who have done a beginner course. A wing foil board with a wing costs €120 a day and €390 for 7 days.
SUP KOS in Kardamena
SUP KOS has a shop on Kardamena harbor and offers eFoil and wing foil lessons, with prices quoted at the shop. The eFoil side is covered in our guide to eFoil in Greece.
Schools and rental stations
SUP KOS
Kardamena, Kos, Greece
Kardamena Harbour, Kos Island
Updated November 2, 2026
Chicken Bay, Gun Bay and Devil's Bay on Karpathos
Between Rhodes and Crete, Karpathos makes the north wind even stronger, in the words of ION CLUB. The club's two centers stand in Gun Bay and Chicken Bay at Afiartis, roughly 800 m apart and 500 m from the airport, and teach wing foil from mid May to mid October.
You choose your bay by how much wind you want. Chicken Bay is horseshoe shaped, with a short sandy beach and 100 m of shallow water, and its wind runs 5 to 10 knots below the wind in the channel. That makes it the beginner and intermediate bay. In Gun Bay, ION CLUB writes, “the wind blows hard, very hard”, and in strong wind the chop builds up to 1 m some 500 m out. Devil's Bay is the windiest of the three and only for the most experienced, with 4 to 8 Bf from the north west, offshore from the left, and bigger chop further out. Summer mornings there are sometimes weak or windless.
A wing course at ION CLUB includes wetsuit, harness, leash, vest and helmet, and the instructors speak English, French, German, Czech, Italian and Slovak. Lesson hours lost to a windless day become a credit note valid for 24 months at ION CLUB centers. Rental comes with a helmet and vest, but bring your own wetsuit and harness if you can, and insurance for rented gear is recommended.
In ION CLUB's calendar, May brings relaxed wind for beginners and foiling and June more of it. July and August are strong, with afternoons that can reach 35 to 40 knots. September has good wind and warm water, and October goes back to easy wind.
The meltemi in knots on Karpathos, Kos and Rhodes
Karpathos is the windiest of the three in every month of the model, and Prasonisi looks the calmest. Those figures are model averages for the open sea next to each beach (ERA5 reanalysis, 2015 to 2024, wind at 10 m), and they run lower than the accelerated wind on the beach itself.
On the beach at Prasonisi the figures run higher. ProCenter Prasonisi gives a summer average of force 5 to 6 from June to September and says May and October often bring the meltemi's full power. Sportif puts the usual summer meltemi there at 20 to 30 knots, sped up by a local venturi.
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| Month | Karpathos, Afiartis | Kos, Marmari | Rhodes, Prasonisi |
|---|---|---|---|
| May | 12 kn (48%) | 11 kn (43%) | 10 kn (32%) |
| June | 14 kn (65%) | 12 kn (60%) | 11 kn (43%) |
| July | 16 kn (84%) | 14 kn (75%) | 12 kn (45%) |
| August | 16 kn (86%) | 12 kn (59%) | 11 kn (49%) |
| September | 15 kn (71%) | 12 kn (59%) | 11 kn (46%) |
| October | 13 kn (55%) | 11 kn (45%) | 10 kn (29%) |
In July and August the wind blows from the north west most of the time. On Kos the model wind climbs from about 11 knots at 09:00 to around 15 at 15:00. On Rhodes it starts light in the morning and builds through the day, according to Reckless Riders, a wing station in Ixia bay, with the windiest weeks from mid June to mid September.
Strong summer wind and the beginner
A force 5 to 6 average sits at or above the force 5 limit that the port regulation, as we read it, puts on a wing. On a strong summer day that limit settles whether you ride at all. For rented gear the operator's anemometer reading counts, for private use the national weather service bulletin.
Even in high summer a learner has somewhere to go. Kefalos in the morning, the Prasonisi lagoon, the beginner lessons at Ixia, Chicken Bay on Karpathos. Gun Bay and Devil's Bay are for experts. May, June, September and October blow less.
Near Ixia the model sea goes from about 20 °C in May to 28 in August. ProCenter Prasonisi gives 20 to 25 °C for its water.
Bringing your own wing: storage and insurance
A rider who flies in with a board bag still needs a base on the beach. Four centers on Rhodes and Kos sell weekly storage for your own gear with rescue cover, and ION CLUB on Karpathos stores own gear too.
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| Center | What it includes | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Surfers Paradise, Ixia | Shade, fresh water, rescue | €100 |
| ProCenter Rhodes, Ialysos | Safety, rescue, beach access | €95 |
| ProCenter Prasonisi | Surf Service: storage, rescue, facilities, booked ahead | €126 |
| Kefalos Windsurfing, Kos | Storage and rescue cover | €130 |
Neither the Greek wing decision nor the general port regulation, as we read them, asks a private rider to carry insurance. The centers differ. Surfers Paradise includes it in lessons, ProCenter Prasonisi sells it as an extra, Kefalos Windsurfing offers none for wing gear, and ION CLUB recommends it for rented gear.
Ferries and flights between Rhodes, Kos and Karpathos
Kos and Rhodes are simple to combine. A fast boat crosses in about 2 hours and a conventional ferry in up to 3. Flights also link Kos and Karpathos with Rhodes, and ION CLUB says Karpathos has ferry links to Athens, Crete and Rhodes.
All three islands have airports with flights from Athens. The one to Karpathos takes around 1 hour 15 minutes, and the ION CLUB centers sit 500 m from the airport, with Pigadia port some 12 km away. On Rhodes, the drive from the airport to Prasonisi takes roughly 90 minutes.
By ferry from Piraeus, Rhodes takes about 11 to 15 hours and Kos about 9.5 to 14, arriving at Kos town. Karpathos gets up to three ferries a week in summer, at Pigadia and Diafani, after 13 to 21 hours at sea.
Greek wing rules on the beach
Greece regulates the wing in its own ministerial decision, 2133.3/46639/2022 “Hydrofoil board (WingFoiling)”, published in the Government Gazette ΦΕΚ Β' 3600 of 8 July 2022 and signed in Piraeus on 23 June 2022. It covers rental and private use alike, and article 1 defines the craft.
Article 2 bans wing riding:
- for anyone under 18 and for non swimmers;
- in adverse weather as defined in article 33 of General Port Regulation No. 20, and before sunrise or after sunset;
- in rocky sea areas;
- among bathers, and within 200 m of where swimmers usually reach on a beach without buoys (on a buoyed beach, outside the buoys);
- in water less than 150 cm deep.
The same article makes a helmet and a lifejacket or impact vest compulsory, and rented wings start and return through a marked channel. The text names no parental exception to the age limit. Article 3 applies the port regulation to anything the decision leaves open.
The port regulation supplies the wind limit: private use is banned by article 33 paragraph 1α above 5 Beaufort or 38 km/h as given in the national weather service bulletin, and rentals meet the same limit in article 32 paragraph 1α, where paragraph 2 makes the rental operator's portable digital anemometer the reading that counts. A windsurfer (article 13) or a kitesurfer may go out up to 7 Bf; the wing, in our reading, is held to 5.
One nautical mile from the coastline is as far as article 25 paragraph 1α lets non motorized craft go unless a specific rule says otherwise, and we take that mile to apply to the wing. The same article, paragraph 3, forbids riding under alcohol, drugs or medication.
Article 24 paragraph 2 forbids a rental operator to give or advertise lessons; it may only show how the craft works. Our reading is that lessons belong at a school and not at a rental stand. Paragraph 1ζ obliges rental operators to apply the local port authority's orders. We take those local orders to bind wing riders too, so ask the school or the port authority what applies where you launch.
Treat the above as our summary of the two texts rather than legal advice; the local port authority has the final say on its own beach.
For the next islands under the meltemi, see the wing foil guide to Crete and the Cyclades wing foil page, for the Ionian side, wing foiling on Lefkada, and for the coast to the east, wing foiling in Turkey. Before a first course, read what a wing foil lesson covers and which wing, board and foil to rent.