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Penhale

★★★★★Small
Beach break Faces W high tide Offshore South East Best swell South West

Best of the week: Thursday around 06:00, 5–7 ft and cross-off.

Surf now12–16ft0.1 m at 11 s from the NW, wind sea 4.6 m from the W
Wind36mphSW · onshore · gusts 59
Tide 6.5mFalling · low 23:06 (1.1 m). Works high tide.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sat
13–17 ft Swell W 8s Wind 35 mph ★★★★★
Sun
15–20 ft Swell W 10s Wind 30 mph ★★★★★
Mon
5–7 ft Swell W 10s Wind 21 mph ★★★★★
Tue
12–17 ft Swell W 11s Wind 29 mph ★★★★★
Wed
7–9 ft Swell W 9s Wind 12 mph ★★★★★
Thu
5–7 ft Swell W 8s Wind 13 mph ★★★★★
Fri
2–4 ft Swell W 8s Wind 18 mph ★★★★★
Sat 24 Sun 25 Mon 26 Tue 27 Wed 28 Thu 29 Fri 30
Time 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 13–17 15–20 14–18 12–16 11–15 9–12 5–7 5–7 6–8 7–10 8–11 11–15 10–13 12–17 12–16 12–16 9–13 8–11 8–11 7–10 7–9 5–7 4–6 4–5 3–5 3–4 2–4 2–4 2–4 2–4 2–4
Swell 8s 10s 9s 8s 11s 10s 10s 5s 6s 10s 10s 12s 7s 11s 10s 10s 10s 9s 9s 9s 9s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 9s 9s
Wind mph 35 30 30 24 19 18 21 24 24 28 27 26 25 29 25 23 20 18 17 15 11 13 15 20 19 20 18 20 20 19 16
Tide m 6.1↓ 5.4↓ 1.7↓ 2.1↑ 6.3↑ 6.0↓ 6.3↓ 2.2↓ 1.3↑ 5.6↑ 6.8↓ 6.9↓ 3.1↓ 0.8↑ 4.6↑ 7.2↓ 7.1↓ 4.2↓ 0.9↓ 3.5↑ 7.0↑ 6.8↑ 5.2↓ 1.4↓ 2.4↑ 6.3↑ – – – – –
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

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

Penhale faces west. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from SW round to N; 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 WNWW
NW
0.1 m at 11 s (swell) · 100 % reaches the beach
W
4.6 m at 8 s (wind sea) · 100 % reaches the beach

How Penhale works

Swell
Best from the south west.
Wind
Offshore is from the south east; anything with west in it is onshore and messes it up.
Tide
high tide.
Getting there
Head through the Holiday Cap on the northern end of Perranporth Cliff.. Weave your way through tourist and security untill you think you'll drive off the cliff.. kepp going for another few feet and you should hopefully be somewhere near.. new tackle the massive dunes and you should be almost there... Almost! beware the climb back up! its knackering!

The far northly end of Perranporth Beach. Has breaks all down this stretch but the right in the far corner are the best.. the fact you need suvival equipment to survive the walk keeps down number of surfers except in summer when the holiday camp is in full swing!

Tide times

  • Sat 16:42High6.6 m
  • Sat 23:06Low1.1 m
  • Sun 04:02High6.7 m
  • Sun 10:22Low1.1 m
  • Sun 16:19High7.0 m
  • Sun 22:42Low0.9 m
  • Mon 04:39High7.0 m
  • Mon 10:59Low0.9 m

Perranporth station, 2 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
Penhale Penhale

Members' own photos of Penhale. Credits: Jane McCarthy.

Comments

1 Jan 2010 · silvabak cross to offshore on S-SE winds, long point break , all abilities, mid-low tide, careful of the rip which runs in the same direction as the wave make getting to the peak a hassle!
18 May 2005 · Ian gloucester fantastic low tide surf at 7.00am! clean glassy waves, neat line ups 4-5ft april 04! good atmosphere welcoming locals, be careful of the rip at high tide or youll find yourself in the rocks!
7 Jan 2005 · Nail Deffo had my session of '04 here in December. Big surf, long racy walls and plenty of space for everyone. I give it four stars.

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