Vassiliki bay from breakfast to sunset
SURF magazine describes Vasiliki as a village closed in by high mountains on three sides, and that shape sets the timetable on the water. It is the last town before the island's southern tip, 25 km south west of Lefkada town and 4 km below Agios Petros. Club Vass writes it Vassiliki and calls the island Lefkas.
The wind is a thermal, one that Club Vass says the mountain over the bay accelerates. Mornings bring a light, mostly onshore breeze and a calm, flat sea, the hours the club keeps for beginners and improvers. Just after lunch, “like clockwork”, the wind swings cross shore and strengthens. The sea stays fairly flat, with some chop.
Windsurfers call that afternoon wind Eric. The magazine puts a typical summer afternoon at 15 to 20 knots, with stronger, gusty days over 25. In its description riders start from the pebble beach in the north of the bay with the wind from the right, and the standing area at the shore is small.
This thermal, mainly from June to September, is what Lefkada rides on, while the Cyclades and the Dodecanese get the meltemi. SURF magazine calls the island ideal for foiling.
Before lunch or after lunch, by level
Eric decides who is on the water. Before lunch the bay is a classroom. After it, the improvers take the lighter early afternoon, and the riders who need no coach wait for the cross shore wind to set in.
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| Level | Morning | Afternoon |
|---|---|---|
| First timer | Land drills, wing handling on a long board, first flights in the light onshore breeze and flat water | Off the water once the wind turns and builds after lunch |
| Improver who flies | Late morning for longer flights | The lighter start of the afternoon on a bigger wing |
| Independent rider | Waits for the afternoon | The cross shore thermal on a smaller wing, back ashore once it passes about 20 knots |
That 20 knot line comes from Greek law. The port rules stop recreational craft above five Beaufort, roughly 20 knots, and as we read them the limit covers a wing, so a gusty afternoon over 25 is off limits on a wing for everyone.
Flight Club's Duotone Unit wings run from 2 to 6.5 m, so one fleet covers both ends of the day. Which size for which wind, and how board volume comes into it, is covered under wingfoil gear.
First timers and the afternoon wind
Fifteen to 20 knots blowing cross shore, the magazine's typical afternoon, is more wind than a first timer controls on a wing, and the gusty days over 25 are further out of reach. Learn in the morning and watch from the beach in the afternoon.
Both schools start beginners on big boards in small groups, Flight Club at most 4 with rescue boats on hand, Surf School Vasiliki at most 6.
Watch the arrival day. The Club Vass package flies you out in the morning, and you can be on the water that afternoon; the club sells it as “Fly AM and Sail PM”. For a first wing session that afternoon is the strong cross shore part of the day, so save your first time on a wing for the next morning. If the sport itself is new to you, start with how wing foiling works.
Flight Club and Surf School Vasiliki, side by side
Two schools teach wing foiling in the bay, Club Vass's Flight Club and Surf School Vasiliki. Wildwind, a dinghy and catamaran sailing center, shares the water with them.
Flight Club, the wing foil center of Club Vass
Club Vass sits on the beach in the center of the bay, a 5 minute walk from the village along the pedestrian beach road. Flight Club is just upwind of it, with its own decked launch and landing zone onto the sea.
Clinics run Monday to Friday, with about 10 hours of coaching depending on conditions. A beginner week goes from wind direction, safety and rigging to wing control on long boards, then on towards first flights. Improvers work on longer, controlled flights, intermediates on sustained flight and their first gybes and tacks.
Coaches use video, Milo Communicator headsets and rescue boats. Private one to one lessons can be booked in resort when there is room, and the RYA lists the club for its Wingfoiling First Flights and Sustained Flights courses. The Duotone fleet comes with helmets, impact vests and safety leashes; knee pads and gloves are sold in the shop.
Club Vass Watersports is a trading name of Wildwind Holidays Ltd, registered in England. Its UK package leaves Gatwick with return morning flights, transfers, accommodation and wing foiling as an option, and guests flying from elsewhere enquire through Club Vass International. The club makes it a condition of booking that anyone going on the water can swim at least 50 meters clothed.
Surf School Vasiliki at the Surf Hotel
Surf School Vasiliki works from the Surf Hotel on the southernmost bay of the island and teaches wingfoiling and windsurfing. Its rental keeps you on one board, which stays yours for the whole rental, whether by the hour, day or week, while the wing is chosen each day to suit the wind.
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| Flight Club (Club Vass) | Surf School Vasiliki | |
|---|---|---|
| Beginners | At most 4 per group, long boards first | At most 6 per group, large boards, inflatable wings |
| Improvers and up | At most 6 per group | At most 2 per instructor |
| Boards | Duotone Sky Start 155 and 170 l, Sky Free 105 to 135 l; Skybrid SLS, Style SLS, Trace SLS or Paradox booked ahead | Fanatic Sky Wing 85, 95 and 110 l |
| Own gear | No storage | Not stated |
| Insurance | Holiday insurance with injury cover required | Gear insurance for rented kit |
| Prices | Quoted on request | Not published |
For what a wing course should cover, and what other schools charge for one, see wing foil lessons.
June, July or September in Vasiliki
Club Vass logs its wind from mid May to late September. July has the fewest light days, and in September roughly every second logged day is windy. Flight Club's clinics run from late May to late June and from late August to late September, never in the July and August peak.
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| Month | Sea | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| May | About 20 °C | Clinics start late in the month, before the main thermal season |
| June | About 24 °C | First timers: clinic weeks, the thermal, a quieter bay |
| July | About 26.5 °C | Riders who already fly: the fewest light days by the club's log |
| August | About 27 °C | Riders who fly, in a busy bay; clinics return late in the month |
| September | About 26 °C | First timers and riders who fly alike |
| October | About 23.5 °C | After the thermal season, no clinics |
From January to April the model puts the sea at around 16 to 18 °C.
Preveza airport to Vasiliki by road
Lefkada has no airport. You land at Aktion, the airport on the mainland that serves both Preveza and Lefkada (code PVK), which has seasonal summer flights from the UK. From there it is about 60 km to Vasiliki, an hour or a little more by road. A long causeway and a floating bridge join the island to the mainland, so there is no ferry to wait for.
Club Vass package guests have the transfer included. Have an ID card or passport with you: Greek rental operators enter the renter's name and document number in a register. Booking with Club Vass also means holiday insurance that covers injury. Flight Club provides the helmet and impact vest the law asks for.
Under 18s, five Beaufort and the launch channel
The wing has a decision of its own in Greek law, 2133.3/46639/2022, published in the Government Gazette (ΦΕΚ Β' 3600) on 8 July 2022 and in force from that day for rental and private use alike. Article 1 defines the wing foil as a handheld wing plus a SUP type board with a built in hydrofoil.
Article 2, paragraph 1(a), rules out wing foiling for anyone under 18 and for anyone who cannot swim. As we read it, that means no wing foil for under 18s in Greek waters, whatever an operator offers. The Club Vass Kids Club and ProKids are windsurf programs.
General Port Regulation No. 20 (GKL 20) is where the wind limit lives. Article 33, paragraph 1(a), stops private use of recreational craft in wind over five Beaufort or 38 km/h, going by the National Meteorological Service bulletin, and article 32, paragraph 1(a), sets that limit for rentals, with the operator's anemometer reading applying under paragraph 2. A wing foil is a recreational craft in that sense, as far as we can tell, so the five Beaufort limit holds for it.
Windsurfing and kitesurfing have a higher limit of seven Beaufort or 61 km/h (article 13, paragraph 1(a), and article 37, paragraph 5(θ)). On a strong afternoon, then, the windsurfers can stay out after the wing riders have come in.
The rest of article 2 of the wing decision, in brief:
- No riding in adverse weather as GKL 20 article 33 defines it, and none before sunrise or after sunset (1(b)).
- No riding in rocky sea areas (1(c)).
- Not among bathers, and not within 200 m of the usual swimming limit where there are no buoys; outside the buoys where a beach must have them (1(d)).
- A minimum water depth of 150 cm (paragraph 2).
- A helmet and a lifejacket or impact vest (paragraph 3).
- Rented wings launch and return through a channel (paragraph 4).
GKL 20 also sets the terms for renting. An operator needs port authority approval (article 22, paragraph 1), keeps an orange rescue boat able to do 12 knots, briefs and registers the renter, and may refuse a rental even below the wind limit (article 24, paragraph 1). The renter has to accept a refusal made on safety grounds (article 34). Each port authority sets the rental posts and channels (article 35), and at Vasiliki the launch points and channels are set per operator on the beach.
That is the gist of the two texts, not a lawyer's opinion. The rules for the electric board are under eFoil Greece.
Calm days and the rest of Lefkada
The windless hours have their own use. E-VASS at Four Winds runs Waydoo Flyer eFoils in the bay from April to October, early in the morning or on a calm afternoon, at a list price of €150 per board, up to 3 people, for a 1.5 hour lesson (more under eFoil Greece).
At the north tip of the island, Agios Ioannis (Milos beach) runs for 4.5 km and is less known than Vasiliki. SURF magazine counts it among the best thermal spots of the Ionian islands, reliable from May to September by its account. The Lefkada regional unit's tourism site describes Myloi, next door, as “the only registered beach exclusive to Kite Surfers”.
Wing foiling on the other Greek islands runs on the meltemi. Crete has Kalamaki for training and Kouremenos in the far east, the Dodecanese bring Prasonisi, Kos and Karpathos, and the Cyclades center on Paros and Naxos. Lefkada, with its afternoon thermal under the mountain, is the odd one out.