Usedom: An Unspoilt Pearl in the Baltic

Most kiters in the Czech Republic know Rujana, but few know Usedom. We visited it and can highly recommend it. Beautiful spots, shallows, sandy beaches.

For a long time I didn’t know where to go with my family to kite for the Feast of Cyril and Methodius and the following week. The Neretva and the Baltic were in play. But there was no good forecast for the Baltic, and the crowds were heading for the Neretva. On the day of departure, I decided to pack the kids’ stuff into two piles – warm and cold. In the end, we chose the winter option, i.e. we rolled to Rujana with the assumption that if it was a port side, we would stretch it further. For example, to Denmark.

In the end we spent the whole week at Rügen. And I ended up riding every day, but only because of the foil. Out of the week, three days on twintip and the rest on foil. Rujana doesn’t look very foil-like, there are big shallows, but if you have enough patience and you can cross the shallows with foil to the depths, these are very good spots for foil. Safe for riders and foil, small waves even at depth.

But I don’t want to write about Rügen, you know? Thanks to the fact that this trip was not so kite intensive, I had room to make stuff up. For instance that we were going to explore a spot unknown to us. We originally wanted to go to Denmark, but the forecast there was even worse than on Rügen. So we headed towards home and went to another Baltic spot. Usedom.

You can find more detailed information, maps, forecasts and other important facts in our listings for Karlshagen and also for Świnoujście.

Usedom

I remembered my friend Peter telling me about it with his eyes rolled back in his head. Great spot, you have to go there. So we went. Only for one day, but if we knew what it was like there, we would definitely go for longer.

We arrived at Usedom at night, heading up to the northern part. I didn’t want to pay for parking, but we were lucky to find free parking just outside Karlshagen.

If you walk through the forest for about 500m, you will reach the beach where you can ride. The beach is quite similar to the one in Juliusruh at Rügen. The spot has a big shoal, but behind it there are waves. By the way, beware, the local forest is full of ticks. We only walked on the path, on sand, almost no grass and caught 6 of them.

This area is one big museum, during the war the V2 rockets were made and tested here. The airport to the north is very interesting, definitely worth a visit.

We, however, like flat water, so we got sent on a flat to Świnoujście. Usedom is divided by the border into German and Polish sides. Świnoujście is already on the Polish side. The flat there is created behind a low wall that separates the shallow, bathing beach from the canal where boats pass through to the harbour.

Immediately upon arriving at the spot we were attracted by the mega landmark. A large, white, beautifully repaired windmill. Not every spot has that. Incredibly photogenic place.

The spot is actually a huge beach where there are lots of bathers in the summer. I figured I’d just pull out the kite and they’d have to kick us out right away, but we’re in Poland and the Polish comrades seem to be more forged, so they didn’t mind the kite overhead at all. Of course, you don’t want to cut off anyone’s ear with a kite, so caution is in order. Plus there is a kite school that teaches right on the main beach and the bathers are used to it.

The forecast was for a light northeast wind that was supposed to pick up towards evening. We arrived at the site around 2:00 pm, it was blowing about 4m/s.

Parking is free and you can sleep in the caravan.

There was no kiter at the spot. We crawled through, took pictures, pulled out the 17 Reach and Jitka went riding. The wind really picked up during the afternoon. I took the kite from Jita and had a two hour super freestyle session. Other kiters and two students showed up. The students pushed a bit against the flat wall, but very quickly the wind blew them down, away from the wall, so the flat was clear.

Interestingly, the other riders were not pushing flat just below the wall. They were riding lower against the kite school. Unlike in Greece, where everyone is crammed onto the flat, here the flat was free for us only.

It was Sunday and we wanted to go home, a long way. We packed up early, around 18:00. By then it was blowing for 12s and more kiters, locals, were heading to the spot. A lot of them were riding foils. According to the locals, there’s some kind of thermal coming up in the evening that will add a few knots to the east.

Summary of spot Świnoujście

Pros

• Flat water, not great, one trick either side, but that’s enough.
• Shallow, spot is safe. If you don’t go far offshore, the wind blows towards the beach and the shoal.
• Riding, and especially parking with sleeping right at the spot for free.
• According to the locals there the east wind in the evening will increase the thermals and in reality blows more than the forecast. I can’t judge because we had the wind pick up in the evening right in the forecast.
• On the flat one really rides one meter away from the peepers, tourers, in some cases very pretty girls :-).

Cons

• Fine sand, a plus for some, not so much for me. You put something on the beach and within moments you have everything full of fine, sticky sand, board, bar, backpacks, everything.
• The wind due to the protective wall was a bit broken. The entrance to the marina is covered on the east side by a high wall, which the wind breaks up. Likewise, when a big boat comes by, it really messes with you 😊.
• People milling around on the spot. Thanks to the shallows, you can take nice photos right in the action, but again, there are uninformed tourists hanging around. You need to keep an eye on them.
• It’s further south and more embedded in the mainland, so the wind here will probably be weaker than on Rügen. So if the forecast is on the edge, Rügen will be more certain.

Usedom is an island that has a northern coastline oriented from northwest to southeast. Thus, all east and north are working on the north coast – from right to east to northwest.

The south and west directions go to the town of Kamminke.

We didn’t visit the spot, but I’ll write about it once we get there. According to the information there is a shallow area there too and towards the east there is wilderness on the shore, so nice for freeride and coaching. I imagine it’s like a cross between Wiek and Neusiedler.

For us a great spot, we’ll definitely be back.

The article was translated with the author’s permission from Mystic Blog.

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Author: Spots4Kite

The team behind Spots4Kite.