The report · Cape Town - Melkbosstrand · Kite · December · 6 pages
Western Cape, South Africa
Cape Town - Melkbosstrand
72% of December days clear 12 kt for three daylight hours or more.
Hour-by-hour & month-by-month wind
Rideable-day share by month, all three sports
Share of days with three or more daylight hours over each sport's threshold, counted from the record at 12 kt, Windsurf 13 kt and Wing 12 kt.
Blue fill scales with the share. Selected month outlined. Threshold per row: Kite 12 kt · Windsurf 13 kt · Wing 12 kt.
Where the wind sits, December
Share of daylight hours in each speed band, blue above the threshold.
Not drawn: 9% of daylight hours under 4 kt.
When in the day, December
Share of days over 12 kt at each daylight hour.
Rideable hours, not all hours. Every wind figure in this report is the mean over hours above the threshold.
December's own records
The month's own figures from nine Decembers in the record, 2017 to 2026. Not the year's average.
What the percentage hides. A month at 80% can be twenty-four steady days or three windy weeks broken by a dead front.
Where to stay & where the schools are
Stays
Lessons
Kit
Price band $ to $$$ only where sourced; none shown means none held. Contact details and brands stocked join this table when the operator directory is connected.
Per-launch tide notes
The SA Navy tide tables give Cape Town, the nearest port, a mean spring range of about 1.5 m. One spot guide says all tides work, better at mid to high tide.
Tide data not yet available for this spot. The record holds wind, air and waves, not tide. Until a tide source is connected, the tables above stay empty rather than estimated. What the guide says about tide is on the next page, in words.
Rocks, surfers, the by-law & the NSRI
Every hazard on the spot page, repeated here in full. Read this before you get wet.
Conditions change. Check local rules and conditions before you ride.
The beach is sand and shells, very wide, with room to rig. A Kiteforum spot page says to launch on the sand below the rocks, that a barrier of rocks runs out about 200 m downwind of the launch, and that kelp on the beach at times can catch lines. Melkbos picks up more swell than the spots closer to town, and the same spot page warns that waves which look small near the launch can get huge further down the beach. The SA Navy tide tables give Cape Town, the nearest port they cover, a mean spring range of about 1.5 m and about 0.6 m at neaps; one spot guide says Melkbos works at all tides but better at mid to high tide. The water is cold: the NSRI calls Cape Town’s Atlantic water chilly and advises a 4/3 mm wetsuit or thicker even in summer; a kite guide says 4/3 or 3/2.
Surfers usually stay upwind of the kiters and windsurfers, and a kite guide asks riders to give them space and priority. The same guide warns that the wind comes in gusts on the beach, so do not fly a kite straight overhead. NSRI Station 18 is at Melkbosstrand. The NSRI advises never to kite in an offshore wind unless you are an expert with rescue support. The City of Cape Town Coastal By-law, 2020 bars surf-riding, any activity on the water with a surfcraft or personal watercraft made of a hard substance that could injure or harm bathers, inside a designated beach bathing area, which includes the sea for 100 m seaward. No one may act against the pictogram signs the City puts up to show what is allowed or prohibited. The by-law does not name kitesurfing or windsurfing. A person guilty of an offence under it is liable to a fine and, on conviction, to imprisonment of up to two years.
Getting there, packing & best months
Derived from the 15 kt mean over the season’s rideable hours in the record, November to February, not from a fitted quiver.
Best months, Kite. Record.
Sources, and their limits
Where each section of this report comes from. Record is measured. Modelled is computed by a formula because no measurement exists yet; it looks like data and is not. Written is WindChaser's editorial copy, compiled from the sources below.
The record
Hourly wind, 2017 to 2026, from ECMWF IFS HRES via Open-Meteo: a 9 km grid, read at the cell 1.9 km from the spot. It knows the wind over the cell, not the gust on the sand in front of you, and it knows the bearing, not the coastline: "side-onshore" is a rider's reading of the bearing. Each month is counted over nine to ten years.
What we could not source for Cape Town - Melkbosstrand
A kite or windsurf school or a hire shop at Melkbosstrand confirmed on its own website today. A counted crowd reading, so the crowd chip is left empty. A bathing water classification and a first-hand reading of the local vibe. A room rate published on a Melkbosstrand stay’s own site. A tide range for Melkbos itself (the range quoted is Cape Town’s) and per-launch tide windows. Where the City’s designated bathing area and pictogram signs sit on this beach. A station check on the wind record. A named, surveyed launch point. A webcam. A licensed riding photograph. Where any of these is missing above, the section says so rather than filling itself.
Conditions change. Check local rules and conditions before you ride.
Compiled by WindChaser, 27 Sep 2026. Hero photograph on the spot page by Ossewa, CC BY 4.0. Report generated 22 Oct 2026 from record version 2026.10; a report and its spot page are rendered from the same data and cannot disagree.