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Melvich

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

Best of the week: Monday around 08:00, 5–7 ft and offshore.

Surf now2–3ft0.9 m at 11 s from the NW, wind sea 0.3 m from the SE
Wind15mphSE · offshore · gusts 27
Tide 4.3mFalling · low 01:35 (0.8 m). Works high tide.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sat
2–3 ft Swell NW 11s Wind 15 mph ★★★★★
Sun
3–4 ft Swell NW 14s Wind 23 mph ★★★★★
Mon
5–7 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 9 mph ★★★★★
Tue
2–4 ft Swell W 9s Wind 34 mph ★★★★★
Wed
2–4 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 15 mph ★★★★★
Thu
2–3 ft Swell NW 7s Wind 11 mph ★★★★★
Fri
1–2 ft Swell W 8s Wind 11 mph ★★★★★
Sat 24 Sun 25 Mon 26 Tue 27 Wed 28 Thu 29 Fri 30
Time 21 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 2–4 1–2 8–10 19–25 18–24 6–8 5–7 5–6 2–3 2–3 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 4–5 2–4 2–4 2–3 2–4 2–3 1–2 1–2 1–2 0–1 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2
Swell 11s 14s 7s 10s 12s 12s 10s 9s 9s 9s 9s 3s 3s 5s 7s 9s 7s 9s 9s 6s 9s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 8s 8s 8s 9s 9s
Wind mph 15 23 18 41 38 36 13 10 10 12 23 20 30 35 37 33 23 19 15 21 15 11 8 15 13 15 14 11 9 7 5
Tide m 4.4↓ 3.9↑ 4.2↓ 1.9↓ 1.4↑ 3.9↑ 3.4↑ 4.6↓ 2.3↓ 0.9↑ 3.4↑ 2.8↑ 4.8↓ 2.9↓ 0.8↓ 2.6↑ 2.1↑ 4.7↑ 3.6↓ 1.0↓ 1.8↑ 1.6↑ 4.2↑ 4.1↓ 1.5↓ 1.3↑ 1.3↑ 3.6↑ 4.3↓ 2.2↓ 1.1↑
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

Surf is the face height at the beach after the swell is filtered for the way Melvich 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 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

Melvich faces north. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from NW 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 NNWSE
NW
0.9 m at 11 s (swell) · 80 % reaches the beach
SE
0.3 m at 2 s (wind sea) · 1 % reaches the beach

How Melvich 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 to melvich, and follow signs to the beach.. once there run over th sand dunes and respect the locals... they're the nicest people you'll ever meet!

Beautiful beach break with a perfect A-Frame wave at high tide.. Some of the mellowest lefts to be found in the north of scotland.. It's not supposed to hold big swells.. but i've had a good head and a half here.. and it was damn good fun!!

Tide times

  • Sun 01:35Low0.8 m
  • Sun 07:45High4.6 m
  • Sun 13:56Low1.1 m
  • Sun 19:54High4.8 m
  • Mon 02:12Low0.6 m
  • Mon 08:21High4.7 m
  • Mon 14:34Low0.9 m
  • Mon 20:33High4.9 m

Scrabster station, 22 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
Mark from the curl.. riding a 6' 4" Single fin / Twin Fish Hybrid! Jez's Favorite kinda wave.. head high ( chest on normal people ) glassy perfection. Floater/stall type thing! Scottish dreamland!

Members' own photos of Melvich. Credits: Oly Banks, Mark.

Comments

30 Jul 2005 · Davey most rippable, mechanical yet mellow rights and lefts on the north shore. caught some of my best waves ever here. watch for the rip from the rivermouth on bigger days!!

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