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Porthcothan

★★★★★Fair
Beach break Faces NW low to mid tide Offshore south-east Best swell north-west

Best of the week: Friday around 17:00, 5–7 ft and offshore.

Surf now1–2ft0.7 m at 8 s from the SW, wind sea 0.4 m from the S
Wind14mphS · offshore · gusts 21
Tide 2.9mFalling · low 02:18 (2.4 m). Works low to mid tide.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sun
2–4 ft Swell W 4s Wind 11 mph ★★★★★
Mon
3–5 ft Swell W 8s Wind 10 mph ★★★★★
Tue
7–9 ft Swell W 6s Wind 14 mph ★★★★★
Wed
17–22 ft Swell W 12s Wind 14 mph ★★★★★
Thu
12–16 ft Swell W 11s Wind 11 mph ★★★★★
Fri
5–7 ft Swell W 9s Wind 5 mph ★★★★★
Sun 15 Mon 16 Tue 17 Wed 18 Thu 19 Fri 20
Time 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 1–2 2–4 3–4 4–5 5–7 4–6 4–5 3–5 3–4 2–3 7–9 9–12 9–13 9–13 12–16 12–16 17–22 17–22 15–20 14–19 11–15 12–16 12–16 11–15 10–14 8–11 7–10 6–9 6–8 5–7
Swell 8s 4s 4s 5s 5s 8s 8s 8s 8s 9s 6s 7s 8s 7s 11s 8s 12s 12s 12s 12s 11s 12s 12s 12s 11s 10s 10s 9s 9s 9s
Wind mph 6 11 19 21 20 10 7 10 14 26 14 23 21 18 18 14 14 14 14 14 13 7 9 8 11 5 4 5 5 5
Tide m 4.9↑ 6.0↓ 3.9↓ 2.5↑ 4.3↑ 4.2↑ 5.8↑ 4.6↓ 2.9↓ 3.7↑ 3.7↑ 5.4↑ 5.0↓ 3.3↓ 3.2↑ 3.3↑ 4.8↑ 5.4↓ 4.0↓ 2.9↑ 3.0↓ 4.0↑ 5.6↑ 4.7↓ 2.9↓ 3.1↓ 3.1↑ 5.4↑ 5.6↓ 3.1↓
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

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

Porthcothan faces north-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 NWSWS
SW
0.7 m at 8 s (swell) · 84 % reaches the beach
S
0.4 m at 3 s (wind sea) · blocked, 0 %

How Porthcothan works

Swell
Best from the north-west.
Wind
Offshore is from the south-east; anything with north-west in it is onshore and messes it up.
Tide
low to mid tide.

Tide times

  • Sun 02:18Low2.4 m
  • Sun 08:22High6.1 m
  • Sun 14:47Low2.5 m
  • Sun 20:41High5.7 m
  • Mon 02:58Low2.7 m
  • Mon 09:07High5.8 m
  • Mon 15:36Low2.8 m
  • Mon 21:32High5.4 m

Padstow station, 8 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
Porthcothan beach - helicopter landing - geograph.org.uk - 2528951 Porthcothan Bay from south - geograph.org.uk - 6199682

Roy Parkhouse, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. David Hawgood, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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