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Great Westen

★★★★★Small
Beach break Faces N low to mid tide Offshore South Best swell West

Best of the week: Wednesday around 13:00, 6–8 ft and cross-off.

Surf now12–16ftwind sea 5.4 m from the W
Wind22mphW · cross-on · gusts 43
Tide 1.1mFalling · low 23:09 (0.9 m). Works low to mid tide.

Live webcam

3 cameras

Open the Towan and Great Western cam by Newquay Activity Centre · Same camera as Towan, next door. Opens in a new tab.

Open on Windy Newquay › North-west · 1.2 km from the break, Newquay. Opens in a new tab.

Open on Windy Newquay › North-west: Porth · 1.7 km from the break. Opens in a new tab.

Player and camera network by Windy.com.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sat
12–16 ft Swell W 9s Wind 22 mph ★★★★★
Sun
14–18 ft Swell W 9s Wind 23 mph ★★★★★
Mon
5–7 ft Swell W 10s Wind 20 mph ★★★★★
Tue
9–12 ft Swell W 10s Wind 17 mph ★★★★★
Wed
6–8 ft Swell W 9s Wind 15 mph ★★★★★
Thu
2–3 ft Swell W 8s Wind 13 mph ★★★★★
Fri
1–2 ft Swell W 8s Wind 17 mph ★★★★★
Sat 24 Sun 25 Mon 26 Tue 27 Wed 28 Thu 29 Fri 30
Time 22 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 12–16 13–17 13–17 12–16 10–14 8–11 4–5 3–4 4–6 5–7 5–7 7–9 6–9 6–9 7–9 7–10 7–10 6–9 6–8 3–5 3–5 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–3 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2
Swell 9s 10s 9s 8s 11s 10s 10s 5s 9s 10s 10s 12s 11s 7s 7s 11s 10s 9s 9s 9s 9s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 9s 9s
Wind mph 22 27 24 20 17 11 17 20 19 19 20 22 20 25 21 18 16 15 15 13 8 10 11 18 15 16 15 16 17 16 14
Tide m 1.4↓ 5.5↓ 1.6↓ 1.9↑ 6.3↑ 6.1↓ 6.4↓ 2.2↓ 1.1↑ 5.6↑ 6.9↓ 7.0↓ 3.1↓ 0.6↑ 4.6↑ 7.3↓ 7.2↓ 4.2↓ 0.7↓ 3.3↑ 7.1↑ 6.9↑ 5.3↓ 1.3↓ 2.2↑ 6.4↑ 6.0↑ 6.0↓ 2.4↓ 1.7↑ 5.2↑
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

Surf is the face height at the beach after the swell is filtered for the way Great Westen faces. Arrows point to where the swell and wind come from: an arrow pointing up means from the north. Tide is the height at Newquay 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

Great Westen 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 NW
W
5.4 m at 9 s (wind sea) · 80 % reaches the beach

How Great Westen works

Swell
Best from the west.
Wind
Offshore is from the south; anything with north in it is onshore and messes it up.
Tide
low to mid tide.
Getting there
head into Newquay park up somewhere near the train station walk up to the Barracuda walk round the back down to the beach

I mint fun wave perfect for beginners and Longboarders, clear blue water or if its to big walk up the beach to towan

Tide times

  • Sat 23:09Low0.9 m
  • Sun 04:02High6.8 m
  • Sun 10:25Low0.9 m
  • Sun 16:19High7.1 m
  • Sun 22:46Low0.6 m
  • Mon 04:39High7.1 m
  • Mon 11:03Low0.7 m
  • Mon 16:58High7.3 m

Newquay station, under 1 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
Beach Huts, Tolcarne - geograph.org.uk - 2178109 Great Western Beach from a cave in Tolcarne Point - geograph.org.uk - 4419740

Chris Andrews, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Anthony Parkes, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Comments

20 Jul 2005 · Tom i luv this spot also lusty mint for Longboarders crowded with beginners but we get along..........

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