Frequently asked questions

The forecasts are free — no account and no sign-up needed to check any spot.

Logging sessions, rankings, following riders and the rest need a WGG account. Some features are part of Orbit, the paid plan. Today nothing can be paid for, and you will be told the price before anything changes. See What does it cost? for what is planned.

917 kite, wing and foil spots across 88 countries and every continent, each with its own wind direction, typical speed range, season, skill level and water type. New spots are added from rider submissions all the time — suggest one if yours is missing.

Yes — tap the star on any spot. Your favourites power the current-conditions view, which ranks them by the wind right now.

Signed in, they are saved to your account, so they are the same on the website, your phone and any other device. Signed out, they stay in this browser only, and are added to your account the first time you sign in.

Android (Chrome): open windygalaxy.com and sign in. Tap ⋮ at the top right, then Add to Home screen (on some phones: Install app), then Add. On Samsung Internet: tap ☰ at the bottom right, then Add page to → Home screen.

iPhone (Safari): open windygalaxy.com, tap Share (the square with the arrow), then Add to Home Screen, then Add. Or get WGG on the App Store, which also records sessions. On Android, WGG for Android does the same and is in testing on Google Play: see Get the app → Android.

The WGG icon opens the site full screen, and you stay signed in.

Forecasts are pulled live from Open-Meteo, which blends several national weather models (including MeteoSwiss, DWD, and NOAA depending on region). If a live forecast can't be fetched for a spot, the site shows an illustrative estimate instead and labels it clearly as such.

Each forecasted wind speed is matched to a rough kite or wing size for twintip, foil, and wing separately, color-coded by how workable that size is. Sizes assume an all-round rider around 75kg and are a starting reference, not a substitute for your own judgment on the day.

Record your sessions with the WGG app on your phone or watch and post them. Each posted session counts on the Session Stats boards (top speed, highest jump, longest session and more).

Every spot you mark with I rode here counts on the Spots Kited board.

In WGG on iPhone or Android, open the Record tab. You need to be signed in.

• Recording with the phone: under Share with friends, choose Go Live, then press Start. Stopping the recording ends your live session too.
• Riding with a watch: choose I ride with my watch, tap Go Live and pick your spot, then start WGG on your watch as usual.

While you are live, other riders see you as a pin on the map at your spot. If you are still live after a few hours, we ask whether you are still riding; answer Done for today to end it.

The WGG watch app runs on 42 Garmin models — fēnix, epix, Forerunner and Instinct 3 AMOLED — on 16 Apple Watch models, Series 4 and later, including every Ultra and SE, and in beta on 22 Amazfit models (Zepp OS), from the Zepp App Store.

The full, always-current list is on the watch compatibility page — it comes from the same place the watch app's own device list does, so it can't drift out of date.

Space Mode is the full session tracker: it measures every jump from the watch's own movement (height, airtime, landing G-force, rotations) and records your GPS track, speed and heart rate.

Earth Mode is speed & distance only.

On Garmin, the model decides. Space Mode needs a gyroscope and enough memory. Every supported Garmin has both, except the Forerunner 70, 165, 165 Music, 170 and 170 Music (no gyroscope) and the fēnix 6 and 6S (not enough memory): they record speed, distance and pump foil, but not jumps. See the list.

On Apple Watch, the watch checks its motion sensors the first time you open the app.

Open the Connect IQ store — either in the Garmin Connect app on your phone or at apps.garmin.com — search for WGG, and install it to your watch. It then appears in your watch's activity list like any other sport.

No. The watch records the whole session on its own — jumps, track, speed and heart rate — with no phone nearby.

Your phone is only needed afterwards, to sync the finished session to your Windy Guide account so it appears in your history and on the rankings.

After upload WGG checks every session and does some adjustments, so a number can differ a little from your watch screen.

Yes: WGG for Android is in testing on Google Play. Ask to join on Get the app → Android. It records with the phone and receives your sessions from a Garmin watch, like the iPhone app.

Amazfit: WGG is in the Zepp App Store (how to install it). The Zepp app sends your sessions to WGG on its own. You see them at windygalaxy.com, under Sessions → My Sessions.

On iPhone, get WGG on the App Store.

Since watch app version 1.4.2 the Garmin screens use small icons instead of text labels, so the numbers can be bigger. Here is what each one means.

Time and distance

• Duration: session time, run time, glide time
• Distance: session distance (km) or run distance (m)
• Runs: runs so far, or "run 2 / 3" on the runs screen
• Successful run: a run that counts: pumps, at least 8 s and 25 m

Speed

• Speed: current speed, or the average speed of a run
• Max speed: top speed of the session or run

Thrust Mode (pump foil)

• Pumps: pumps this run, or pumps per run
• Pumps per minute: your pumping rhythm, counted over successful-run time
• Glide time: time spent gliding without pumping

Jumps (Space Mode)

• Last jump: height of your last jump
• Best jump: highest jump of the session
• Jump distance: how far a jump went; the longest one
• Airtime: time in the air
• Max g: your hardest landing, in g
• Jumps: number of jumps
• Total height: all jump heights added up

Other

• Personal best: shown when you beat a record
• Battery: watch battery (Space Mode, page 2)
• GPS: GPS is ready

The watch screens use only a few pure colours, chosen because they stay readable in bright sun. Each colour always means the same thing:

• White: numbers, lines and labels
• Yellow: pumps; background of a personal-best pop-up
• Cyan: speed; the ring while you glide
• Green: a successful run; the GPS-ready pop-up
• Orange: the ring while you pump; the highlighted numbers in Space Mode (last jump, total height, max speed)
• Red: the max g icon only
• Grey: separator lines; a dashed ring when you are not foiling

The ring round the screen (Thrust Mode): solid orange while you pump, solid cyan while you glide, dashed grey when you are not foiling or between runs.

Pop-ups: white with black numbers when a jump lands, yellow for a new personal best, green when the GPS is ready.

Very bright day? On the watch, open WGG, go to Settings → Display and choose Sun (white). Every riding screen switches to a white background with black numbers. Choose Dark to go back.

Yes, on iPhone and Android. Open the Record tab in WGG, choose Record with this phone, your discipline and press Start. Put the phone in a waterproof pouch and ride; press and hold Stop when you are back. The ride waits at the top of the Record tab until you post it, like a watch session. It is free.

While you ride, the time and your numbers stay on the Lock Screen (iPhone) or in the WGG notification (Android), and in Space mode the phone speaks each jump's height.

Earth (speed, distance, runs) is ready. Space (jumps) and Thrust (pump foil) are marked BETA: they use the same maths as the watches, which was tuned on a wrist, so heights and stroke counts from a phone are still being checked against real rides.

WGG for Android is in testing on Google Play: see Can I record with an Android phone?

WGG is not a safety device. Ride with others and tell someone where you are.

In a waterproof pouch that holds it tight against your body: on the upper arm, or across the chest, or inside a wetsuit. A phone that can swing or bounce in a loose pocket reads every bump as a pop, and jumps go wrong.

No calibration is needed.

Press Start before you put the phone away, and lock it: the screen turns off against your body and nothing gets pressed by accident.

Start with a well-charged phone: the Record screen warns you below 30 % on iPhone and 20 % on Android. GPS and motion run the whole session, so expect the battery to drop faster than usual.

iPhone: WGG needs Location (While Using is enough; the recording keeps going with the screen locked) and Motion & Fitness for jumps and pump strokes. If you said no by mistake: iPhone Settings → WGG.

Android: WGG needs Location and Notifications. The WGG notification keeps the recording going with the screen off. If you said no by mistake: Android Settings › Apps › WGG › Permissions. Some phones (Xiaomi, Huawei, OnePlus and others) close apps to save battery. If a ride stops by itself: Android Settings › Apps › WGG › Battery › Unrestricted.

If the phone switches off or WGG is closed during a ride, nothing is lost up to the last minute: the session is waiting for you the next time you open WGG.

Yes, with WGG for Android, which is in testing on Google Play. Ask to join on Get the app → Android.

Then open Record › Record with this phone, choose your discipline and press Start. It works like the iPhone: see Can I record a session with my phone, without a watch?

It starts with an ordinary rider account — the same one you would use to log sessions. That account is how we know who you are, and it is what you will sign in with afterwards.

Then go to windygalaxy.com/partners while signed in and tell us what you are: an instructor, a school, or a brand or shop. You fill in only what that answer actually needs — a brand is asked for a company and a website, an instructor is not asked for a company at all.

We read every application by hand. When it is approved, your profile is created for you and appears in your account under the Organiser tab. You never create an organiser profile yourself — it always arrives as the result of something: your first event, or an approved application.

Four kinds of profile exist, and nobody is two of them at once:

• Individual — a rider. It appears on its own the first time you create an event. It is free, and it always will be.
• Instructor — a person who teaches. The profile belongs to you, not to your job, so you keep it whether you teach on your own, for one school, or for two.
• School — a business that teaches, with instructors, a company record and staff who can be let in.
• Partner — a brand or a shop. Brand and shop are the same type; a shop that also teaches is a school with a shop, and the blurb says the rest.

Note that sponsoring is not one of these. Sponsoring is something you buy, not something you are — which is why a school can sponsor an event without that being a contradiction.

Any approved business — a school just as much as a brand. Sponsoring is a purchase, not an identity, so it is not limited to one kind of profile.

An individual rider does not sponsor; they run their own events, which is free.

Whoever applied becomes the admin of the business. They are who the agreement is with, and they are who lets everyone else in — checked against the company's email domain.

So there is no self-declaring: nobody can attach themselves to your brand by typing its name. The admin invites them, or approves them when they ask.

If the person who applied leaves, write to us and we will move the admin over.

Honestly: nothing yet. WindyGalaxy is still finding its feet, and there is no way to pay us even if you wanted to.

What is planned, so that nobody is surprised later:

• Running an event as an individual — free.
• Instructors and schools — a subscription to have your lessons promoted on the site.
• Brands and shops — paid per event and per placement.

Everything on this list is switched off until there is a way to pay and we have told you the price first.

Gusty's First Ride — a short tale from Planet Eol.

On the wind-swept cliffs of Planet Eol, where the sky is always the colour of fresh oranges and the air tastes faintly of salt and stardust, lived a little teal whirlwind named Gusty.

Most Eolians spent their days riding the endless thermals, racing cloud-hares, or polishing their wind-vane antennae. Gusty did all of that too — until the day the Blue Comet fell.

It wasn't a real comet. It was an old Earth kiteboard, somehow flung across the galaxy, that crashed into the Crystal Lagoon with a splash loud enough to wake every star in the sector. When Gusty pulled it from the water, something strange happened — the board still hummed with the memory of waves and wind. The moment he stood on it, a soft ocean breeze (the first true ocean breeze Eol had ever felt) wrapped around him like a friend.

He laughed. Then he flew.

For the first time, Gusty felt the perfect marriage of wind and water. He carved across the lagoon, jumped over floating islands of ice-crystal, and left trails of glowing spray that looked like miniature rainbows. The other Eolians watched in disbelief. "Water?" they cried. "We're wind people!" Gusty just grinned, antennae bobbing, and shouted back, "Then you've never danced with both!"

Word spread faster than a solar wind. Soon little Gusty was the unofficial ambassador of "wet wind sports." He built the first kite-lines from glowing spider-silk, taught the shy fog-spirits how to edge a board, and even convinced a grumpy storm-giant to stop raining on the lagoon during lessons.

Now, on clear galactic nights, if you look toward the constellation of the Dancing Kite, you might see a tiny turquoise figure carving luminous arcs across a silver lagoon. And if you ever find yourself near Planet Eol — the Windy Guide of the Galaxy knows the coordinates — don't be surprised if a cheerful voice calls out: "Hey! Got room for one more? The wind's perfect today, and the water's waiting." Gusty will already have a spare board ready for you.

On the website: open Events at the top of the page (on a phone: in the bar at the bottom), sign in, tap Planning, then + Create an event. Shortcut: windygalaxy.com/events#mine.

On the iPhone: Search tab › Events › Create an event.

Give it a name, the dates it runs, the spot or country, what it is scored on, and who can join. Any rider can create an event, for free.

A WGG event is a competition: you choose what it is scored on — Space (highest jump), Earth (top speed), Spacewalk (longest airtime), Meteors (jumps landed), Voyager (most kilometres) and more — and the dates it runs. Every session its riders log inside those dates lands on the event's boards on its own.

For your crew only: create the event (see How do I create an event?), choose Private under who can join, and tick your group. Its members are in straight away and get a notification. To add someone outside the group, use Invite people… once the event is made.

Public: anyone with the link can join, and it shows in the Events calendar.

Private: only the groups you tick and the people you invite. Each invite link works for one person: whoever opens it first is in. Someone without an invite cannot join, even with the event's address.

Riders › Groups › ＋ New group (on the website: Sessions › Riders › Groups). Give it a name and an icon, then ＋ Invite.

Invite riders already on WGG by searching their name (they get a notification), or send an invite link by WhatsApp, Messages, Email, Copy link or a QR code. Each link works for one person: whoever opens it first joins. Links nobody used are listed on the group page, with Take back.

Open your group and tap I'm going…: pick the spot, the day and morning, afternoon or evening, add a message if you like ("West wind 18 kt from 14:00, who's in?"), and choose which of your groups to tell. They get a notification and answer I'm in or Maybe. The plan shows the forecast and Directions to the spot.

Riders › ＋ Invite. Send your WGG link by WhatsApp, Messages, Email, Copy link or show the QR code at the beach. It opens your profile, with Follow one tap away. Someone new to WGG can sign up from there, or get the app at windygalaxy.com/get-the-app.

Open their profile (tap their name on a session, find them in Riders, or scan their QR code with your phone camera) and tap Follow. Their public sessions then show in your feed and you can compare your numbers with theirs.

Tap the share button on it. Every share in WGG offers the same choices: WhatsApp, Messages, Email, Copy link, a QR code, or any other app on your phone (More apps). A session card picture is sent with Send the picture….

In WGG on iPhone or Android, open Record and choose I ride with my watch, then pick the spot and the groups to tell. Your friends see that you are on the water; the session itself is recorded by your watch as usual.

Open the spot and tap Directions: Google Maps opens with the route to it (the app if you have it, the website if not).