Porto Pollo Windsurf and Kitesurf: Two Bays, Two Sets of Rules and a Short School Season

Porto Pollo bans kites from its eastern bay for most of the year

The rule that shapes your week here is in a coast guard order. Porto Pollo, Portu Puddu in Gallura dialect, is a thin strip of sand between the mainland and the Isola dei Gabbiani, also called Isuledda. It sits halfway between Palau and Santa Teresa Gallura, near the mouth of the Liscia. The Capitaneria labels the two sides plainly: Porto Pollo to the east, Porto Liscia to the west.

Article 1 of ordinance 38/2016, issued by the Capitaneria di Porto of La Maddalena on 17 March 2016, draws the line:

“Nella Baia di Porto Pollo, a partire dalla domenica prima di Pasqua sino al 10 novembre di ogni anno, è interdetta la navigazione dei Kitesurf salvo quanto indicato al punto 3 della presente Ordinanza.”

In English: kites may not sail the bay from the Sunday before Easter until 10 November each year. For the coming season that Sunday is 21 March 2027. Article 3 reserves the water off Porto Pollo, out to a line of about 1.1 km running east from Isuledda, for windsurfs, dinghies and sailing catamarans.

The exception is narrow. One named company, FH Academy, may teach kitesurfing to “persone disagiate”, disadvantaged people, there, beyond 200 meters from shore, under a regional authorization from 2015. Nobody else gets that carve-out.

The schools' own layout fits the order. The Spot says it teaches kite from Barrabisa beach in the bay to the left of Isuledda, and wing foil from Porto Pollo beach in the bay to the right. The 2016 text never mentions wing foils, so ask at the beach which side applies to yours. One search trap: Corsica has its own Porto Pollo, at Serra-di-Ferro, and it is a different place.

The Porto Liscia kite corridor is 80 meters wide and forbids tricks

Kites at Porto Pollo live under one sentence: stay beyond 200 meters from the coast or inside a launch corridor. The corridor sits on the Porto Liscia side, next to the river mouth on the ordinance's map. It is the only way through the coastal strip. Articles 5 to 9 set out how it works:

• Size. Cone-shaped, 200 meters out from the low-water line and 80 meters wide on the shore side, with 10 meters at each edge set aside for schools. Orange buoys mark it.
• Going out. By body drag, or riding “in corretta postura ed a bassa velocità”, in proper posture and at low speed, with no maneuvers.
• Tricks. “Nei corridoi di lancio ed in prossimità della riva è proibito eseguire figure e salti”: no tricks or jumps in corridors or near shore.
• Right of way. Kiters coming back toward the beach have priority inside the corridor.
• Coming in. Drop the kite far enough out that it lands in the water, before the low-water line.
• Flotation. Every kiter wears it the whole time on the water. An instructor running a body-drag lesson is the only exemption.
• Hours. Sunrise to sunset.

Past the corridor you get no special status. The order says that beyond the 200-meter strip kiters have no priority, and the normal collision rules apply.

Schools carry their own duties under Article 10: a declared staff list, certified rescue cover, and a posted copy of the order and the rates. It also says instructors must hold a brevet from FIV, the Italian sailing federation, from 1 May 2017. An IKO or VDWS listing does not answer that, so ask to see the FIV card. Sporting Club Sardinia says its kite instructors are certified “FIV/VDWS/IKO”.

Windsurfing at Porto Pollo gets the inside 200 meters, if the swim lines are up

Windsurfers have the better deal. Elsewhere on this coast the first 200 meters off a sand beach belong to swimmers, under the 2025 beach-safety ordinance. Here Article 1 of the 2016 order lets small craft use that strip: windsurfs, sailing dinghies, beach craft, canoes and kayaks. Kites and unauthorized motorboats stay out. There is one condition, and the order fixes its wording for a sign on the sand:

“KITEBOARDING, WINDSURFING AND SAILING IS PERMITTED ONLY IF SWIMMING SAFETY LINES ARE IN PLACE”

The map divides the shore into three kinds of water. Zones marked A are for swimmers only, and no gear may sit on the sand behind them. Zones marked B are launch lanes for anything unpowered except kites, with no swimming and no stopping. You may rig on the sand behind them by day, but not on the first 5 meters above the waterline. Zones marked C, on both sides of the isthmus, are for motorboats at 3 knots or less.

All of this runs from the week before the bathing season until its end, and “bathing season” is where it blurs. The 2025 beach order uses the third Saturday of May to the third Sunday of September. The Sardinian region defines a summer bathing season of 1 April to 31 October. The Spot gives 1 May to 31 October, citing the Capitaneria. Ask which applies if you are here in shoulder months.

One caution on all of the above. Ordinance 38/2016 is ten years old, a later order may exist, and the 2025 beach order does not name it. That order cancels only earlier provisions that contradict it. Article 11 of the 2016 text requires beach concessions to display it, so read the notice on site. Palau's maritime office is on 0789 709419.

The Mistral through the Bocche di Bonifacio favors the months Porto Pollo's schools are shut or just opening

The wind is why the order exists. Its preamble calls the place an international destination because of its shape and “venti dominanti”, its prevailing winds. EUMETRAIN, the European weather-satellite training program, describes the Mistral as a cold northerly or northwesterly wind out of southern France. It says gale-force Mistrals raise high seas across the western Mediterranean, “especially blowing through the Strait of Bonifacio between the islands of Corsica and Sardinia”.

The calendar runs against the schools. EUMETRAIN says the Mistral is most common in winter and spring. Climates to Travel says Sardinia is windy from October to April, largely because of this wind, known here as the Maestrale. Météo-France's Cap Pertusato station, on a 107-meter cape about 23 km away across the strait, fits that: its 1991 to 2020 mean wind peaks in March and December and bottoms out in August.

That does not make summer calm. The gap between months at Cap Pertusato is modest. A high cape is not a beach either, so read that series for its shape only.

On the beach itself, the sources are less exact. Sardegna Turismo says the area is “constantly hit by winds, sometimes strong ones” and that somewhere along the bay you will find surfing conditions while the sea stays flat elsewhere. Wind Porto Pollo says one side takes the wind while the other can stay flat and calm. Sporting Club Sardinia's homepage carries a line it credits to Robby Naish and Charlie Messner in 1980: more than 40 knots of Maestrale, meter-high chop or water like a salt lake, sand underfoot.

That is a school's welcome mat. Wikipedia's 15 to 30 knots from April to November carries no citation. Plan from a forecast and the webcams the schools link, not from a promised number.

La Maddalena park rules stop short of Porto Pollo, until you sail for Spargi

Law 10 of 4 January 1994 builds it from “le isole e gli isolotti appartenenti al territorio del comune de La Maddalena” plus the sea around them, for at least a kilometer from the coast. The Capitaneria places Isuledda in the municipality of Palau. So the isthmus is not park land. The final marine boundary sits on a 1:25,000 chart attached to the 1996 decree, so check that chart before any long reach north.

Spargi, the closest park island, is about 5.8 km from the isthmus. In the park's Mb zones, the 1996 decree allows navigation, stopping and anchoring by “navi e natanti di ogni genere e tipo” beyond 300 meters from the coast. Within 300 meters, it allows them only for residents and permit holders. In Ma zones, unregulated navigation and access are banned outright.

Neither the law nor the decree uses the word kite or windsurf. “Every kind and type” of craft is the phrase that could catch a board, and the text does not settle it. Ask the park authority before you land on an island beach.

The archipelago's rules are moving too. YACHT and mySea report a Capitaneria ordinance, 33/2026, with extra measures for the 2026 and 2027 seasons, including new speed limits in Mb zones. They differ by a day on its start in June. It is written for the archipelago's waters, so read it if your plan leaves the Porto Liscia side.

Porto Pollo in winter still has wind, but not much else

This is a seasonal place, and the calendar is short. Sporting Club Sardinia says its center runs “da Pasqua a inizio novembre”, daily from 9:30 to 18:30. The Spot calls itself a seasonal opening and gives 1 May to 31 October for lessons. The Isola dei Gabbiani holiday village advertises its 2026 opening from 1 April. One record points the other way: the VDWS lists Salty Wind, at La Sciumara beach in Palau, as year-round. Call first, because a register line is not an opening schedule.

The water asks for a suit most of the year. These figures are triangulated from three climate sites, not an official station, giving normals for Palau, Olbia and Porto Cervo: about 13.5 to 14°C in February and 25 to 25.8°C in August, with about 18 to 18.7°C in November. The wetsuit guide is worth reading before a shoulder-season trip.

If you bring your own kit between 11 November and Palm Sunday, the bay ban in Article 1 no longer applies. Neither does a school rescue boat, since the schools with posted dates are closed. In a strait known for gales that is not a small trade.

Flying to Olbia for Porto Pollo still works in winter; the last 49 km needs a car

Olbia Costa Smeralda is the airport, 49 km from the isthmus by OpenStreetMap routing, about an hour. Palau town is 8 km away and Santa Teresa Gallura 23 km by road. The airport's board in early November showed Aeroitalia to Rome Fiumicino and Milan Linate and easyJet to Milan Malpensa. Unione Sarda reported in August 2026 that Volotea would fly Barcelona, Paris, Madrid, Venice, Verona and Turin from Olbia this winter, with Bologna back and Naples added for Christmas.

Rent a car unless you have confirmed a bus. Palau is also the ferry port for La Maddalena, which is the way to reach its hospital and town.

Porto Pollo emergencies: 1530 at sea, and a hospital across water or 34 km off

Save two numbers. The Capitaneria's 2025 ordinance prints 1530 for emergencies at sea and 112 as the general line.

The local health authority, ASL Gallura, lists three hospitals: Giovanni Paolo II in Olbia, about 34 km in a straight line, Paolo Merlo on La Maddalena, about 8 km but across the water, and Paolo Dettori in Tempio Pausania. Ask your school which one it uses for a serious injury.

Wind Porto Pollo requires a life jacket on its rental gear, charges €20 for a rescue, and takes ID plus a €100 deposit or a credit card. If you kite, check that your travel or sports insurance names kitesurfing.

Porto Pollo windsurf and kite prices, as the schools post them

Two schools here print usable numbers. These are their own figures, read on 4 November 2026, and next season's list may differ. Sporting Club's kite page shows one course at two prices, so confirm before paying.

The windsurf courses are the cheaper way in, and they suit this water. If you are new to both, the first steps in windsurfing will help you pick.

Porto Pollo is a tricky first kite lesson and a poor month-long work base

Kite beginners who picture learning on the flat side should think again. That side is the banned one in season, and lessons happen on the other bay. Freestyle riders must get past the 200-meter strip before they throw anything. For flat water elsewhere, compare flat-water kite spots or Marsala's lagoon, a nature reserve on the Sicilian side.

Anyone who wants a town should also pass. Porto Pollo is a beach strip with schools, a hotel and a holiday village, and the village says its Wi-Fi is in the common area with a better signal from your veranda. Bring your own connection and test it on day one. Treat a month here as a beach stay with a laptop, not a work base. For a kite base with a real town around it, Tarifa is the safer bet.

The 11 Porto Pollo operators on our list, and where they really are

The Porto Pollo operator list holds 11 businesses read from three registers on 1 September 2026: 6 from SSI, 4 from the VDWS and 1 from IKO. A 20 km search circle and loose town fields explain the spread, and it matters when you book.

• At the isthmus (3): Sporting Club Sardinia, Wind Windsurf School Porto Pollo and The Spot.
• Palau, not the isthmus (2): Salty Wind at La Sciumara beach, about 5 km off, and Blue Zone, a dive center.
• Santa Teresa Gallura (2): Asd Focus and Diving Santa Teresa Gallura, both dive, 23 km by road.
• Other towns (3): Area11 on La Maddalena, Scuba Revolution at Cannigione and Orso Diving Club at Poltu Quatu, all dive.
• Golfo Aranci (1): Surf and Co, 50 km by road. The VDWS files it under “Palau - Golfo Aranci”, and its listed site did not resolve in September.

So there are six dive businesses on the list and none of them is at the isthmus. A listing shows that a body registers the business; it says nothing about the teaching or this season. Absence means little too. Wikipedia names MB Pro Center at Porto Pollo, which these registers do not carry. Which registers can be read sets out what each one returned.