Third Avenue (San Mateo)
San Francisco Bay (Foster City) · near San Mateo / Foster City · SF Bay Area
Wind Sports
At a glance
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Best season
- April–September (afternoons)
- Water temperature
- Cool (upper 50s°F) — 4/3 wetsuit
What is here
- Amenities
- Flatwater — the Bay's top learner spot · Big kite & wing scene · Schools & rentals nearby · Shallow, forgiving at high tide
- Best for
- Learning to kite/wing on flat water
- Features
- The Bay Area's top learn-to-kite spot · Flatwater at high tide · Huge kite & wing community · Steady, manageable wind
Worth knowing
- Hazards
- Shallow at low tide (rig at high tide) · Cold water · Crowded on windy days · Powerlines/road behind the launch
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Guides, rentals and operators
- Lessons
- Yes
Wind Sports detail
- Discipline
- kite · wing · windsurf
- Conditions
- flat
- Venue
- bay
- Wind kt
- 18
- Wind
- W/NW, 12–25 kt summer afternoons — the Peninsula's steady bread-and-butter breeze
- Intl tip
- The Bay Area's top LEARN-TO-KITE/WING spot — flatwater at high tide, steady 12–25 kt westerly, forgiving and shallow. Rig at high tide (very shallow at low). Cool water (4/3 wetsuit). Big scene, crowded on windy days. Schools and rentals nearby. Mellower than Crissy (no ripping current). Ideal for progression.
The guide
Third Avenue in San Mateo (at the edge of Foster City) is the Bay Area's premier flatwater spot and the place most local kiters…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Third Avenue (San Mateo) — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.568, -122.268