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Sandside Bay

★★★★★Good
Beach break Faces N high tide Offshore South West Best swell North West

Best of the week: today around 19:00, 5–7 ft and offshore.

Surf now7–10ft2.6 m at 9 s from the NW, wind sea 0.5 m from the W
Wind11mphSW · cross-off · gusts 19
Tide 3.7mFalling · low 12:23 (1.9 m). Works high tide.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Tue
5–7 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 9 mph ★★★★★
Wed
4–6 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 9 mph ★★★★★
Thu
4–6 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 8 mph ★★★★★
Fri
4–6 ft Swell W 7s Wind 22 mph ★★★★★
Sat
11–14 ft Swell W 8s Wind 27 mph ★★★★★
Sun
7–9 ft Swell W 8s Wind 8 mph ★★★★★
Mon
2–4 ft Swell W 7s Wind 4 mph ★★★★★
Tue 6 Wed 7 Thu 8 Fri 9 Sat 10 Sun 11 Mon 12
Time 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18
Surf ft 7–9 6–9 6–8 5–7 4–6 4–6 4–6 5–7 5–7 5–7 5–6 4–6 4–6 4–6 2–3 4–5 4–6 4–6 4–6 6–9 6–9 8–11 10–14 11–14 7–9 7–9 6–9 5–8 5–7 3–4 2–4 2–3 2–3 2–3
Swell 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 5s 5s 7s 7s 6s 7s 8s 8s 7s 6s 8s 9s 8s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 8s
Wind mph 9 10 12 7 10 9 10 10 12 11 8 5 3 8 18 22 23 22 22 27 28 29 28 26 11 7 9 12 17 5 4 9 12 13
Tide m 3.0↓ 1.9↓ 2.7↑ 4.1↑ 3.9↑ 3.6↓ 1.8↓ 2.1↑ 4.0↑ 3.6↑ 4.1↓ 2.1↓ 1.5↑ 3.7↑ 3.1↑ 4.5↓ 2.5↓ 1.1↑ 3.2↑ 2.4↑ 4.6↑ 3.0↓ 1.0↓ 2.6↑ 1.9↑ 4.5↑ 3.6↓ 1.1↓ 2.0↑ 1.4↑ 4.3↑ 4.0↓ 1.4↓ 1.5↑
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

Surf is the face height at the beach after the swell is filtered for the way Sandside Bay faces. Arrows point to where the swell and wind come from: an arrow pointing up means from the north. Tide is the height at Scrabster above chart datum, rising ↑ or falling ↓; the rating drops when the tide is outside the window this break works on. Amber marks the sessions worth setting an alarm for. From Friday the swell comes from Météo-France's 10-day model, which is coarser than the 5 km German model used close in. Hours no model reaches are left blank, not shown as flat.

Exposure

Sandside Bay faces north. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from W round to NE; the brighter a wedge, the deeper the water in that direction and the more of the swell gets in. Anything from behind the headlands scores nothing, however big the buoy says it is.

NESWfaces NNWW
NW
2.6 m at 9 s (swell) · 100 % reaches the beach
W
0.5 m at 3 s (wind sea) · 45 % reaches the beach

How Sandside Bay works

Swell
Best from the north west.
Wind
Offshore is from the south west; anything with north in it is onshore and messes it up.
Tide
high tide.
Getting there
Drive past dounreay on the a836 follow signs to sandside bay.

Classic Left Hnaders of Massive swells.. offshore on Big Westely winds.. Beware the WARNING ABOUT NUCLEAR DEBRIS BEING FOUND ON THIS BEACH..

Tide times

  • Tue 12:23Low1.9 m
  • Tue 18:31High4.1 m
  • Wed 00:53Low1.1 m
  • Wed 07:11High4.1 m
  • Wed 13:18Low1.6 m
  • Wed 19:22High4.4 m
  • Thu 01:41Low0.8 m
  • Thu 07:56High4.4 m

Scrabster station, 15 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
A stormy afternoon at Sandside Bay, Reay - geograph.org.uk - 6466294 The beach at Sandside Bay - geograph.org.uk - 7574547

Colin Park, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Alan Reid, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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