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Black Middens

★★★★★Fair
River mouth Faces E mid to high tide Offshore North West Best swell North East

Best of the week: Monday around 16:00, 3–4 ft and cross-off.

Surf now2–3ft0.4 m at 8 s from the SE, wind sea 2.6 m from the S
Wind20mphW · offshore · gusts 36
Tide 1.8mFalling · low 21:16 (1.3 m). Works mid to high tide.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sat
2–3 ft Swell S 5s Wind 20 mph ★★★★★
Sun
1–2 ft Swell W 4s Wind 23 mph ★★★★★
Mon
3–4 ft Swell SE 4s Wind 15 mph ★★★★★
Tue
4–5 ft Swell SE 7s Wind 30 mph ★★★★★
Wed
0 ft Swell SW 2s Wind 26 mph ★★★★★
Thu
0–1 ft Swell N 6s Wind 14 mph ★★★★★
Fri
1–2 ft Swell N 5s Wind 13 mph ★★★★★
Sat 24 Sun 25 Mon 26 Tue 27 Wed 28 Thu 29 Fri 30
Time 19 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 2–3 0–1 0–1 1–2 1–2 1–2 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–4 3–5 4–5 3–4 2–3 1–2 1–2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 1–2
Swell 5s 4s 5s 5s 5s 4s 10s 9s 4s 5s 7s 7s 8s 4s 3s 3s 2s 2s 2s 2s 2s 4s 3s 7s 6s 7s 5s 6s 5s 5s 5s
Wind mph 20 32 32 34 26 25 7 8 13 14 16 30 34 34 32 26 26 23 20 20 18 10 13 11 15 20 23 19 15 13 13
Tide m 2.3↓ 2.3↓ 0.8↑ 3.3↑ 5.0↓ 2.8↓ 3.0↓ 0.7↓ 2.6↑ 5.1↑ 3.4↓ 3.7↓ 0.9↓ 1.9↑ 5.0↑ 4.1↓ 4.4↓ 1.4↓ 1.4↑ 4.5↑ 4.6↓ 4.9↓ 2.1↓ 1.1↑ 3.8↑ 4.9↓ 5.1↓ 3.0↓ 1.3↑ 3.1↑ –
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

Surf is the face height at the beach after the swell is filtered for the way Black Middens faces. Arrows point to where the swell and wind come from: an arrow pointing up means from the north. Tide is the height at River Tyne (North Shields) 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 Wednesday 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

Black Middens faces east. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from N round to SE; 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 ESES
SE
0.4 m at 8 s (swell) · 100 % reaches the beach
S
2.6 m at 5 s (wind sea) · 27 % reaches the beach

How Black Middens works

Swell
Best from the north east.
Wind
Offshore is from the north west; anything with east in it is onshore and messes it up.
Tide
mid to high tide.
Getting there
Head to Newcastle, then to tynemouth.. once there head for the coastguards station to check the spot.

One of the best waves on the East Coast, but seldom works and horribly polluted this isn't the best spot.. On the mouth of the river tyne, between two piers.

Tide times

  • Sat 21:16Low1.3 m
  • Sun 02:07High5.0 m
  • Sun 08:39Low0.8 m
  • Sun 14:41High5.0 m
  • Sun 20:53Low1.1 m
  • Mon 02:44High5.2 m
  • Mon 09:16Low0.7 m
  • Mon 15:15High5.2 m

River Tyne (North Shields) station, 2 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
Black Middens

Members' own photos of Black Middens. Credits: James Watson.

Comments

17 May 2005 · James C Only seen it looking like the photo 5 times in ten years.... but amazing when good.
31 Jan 2005 · wibster never breaks properly anymore :(
27 Jan 2005 · desprate surf that place lucks sick man really thick

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