Wind blowing from the sea toward the land. It's safer for wind sports (pushes you to shore) but creates choppy, messy wave conditions.
Onshore wind blows from the ocean onto the beach. For surfers, pure onshore wind is usually bad news — it pushes against incoming waves, making them crumbly and disorganized.
But for kitesurfers and windsurfers, onshore wind provides a crucial safety factor: if something goes wrong, the wind pushes you back toward land. Most kite and windsurf schools teach in onshore or side-onshore conditions for this reason.
The best compromise for wind-powered wave riding is side-shore wind — it runs parallel to the beach, keeping waves clean while still being safe. Understanding wind direction relative to the coastline is one of the most important skills in watersports.
Example usage
"Onshore wind all day — surf was messy but the kiters were loving it at 20 knots side-onshore."
Watersports Tracker records your speed, distance, route, and more — for 24+ sports.