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Porthcothan

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

Best of the week: Thursday around 10:00, 3–5 ft and offshore.

Surf now17–22ftwind sea 5.8 m from the W
Wind31mphW · onshore · gusts 50
Tide 7.1mFalling · low 10:44 (1.1 m). Works low to mid tide.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sun
9–12 ft Swell W 10s Wind 18 mph ★★★★★
Mon
5–7 ft Swell W 9s Wind 22 mph ★★★★★
Tue
10–14 ft Swell W 8s Wind 20 mph ★★★★★
Wed
6–8 ft Swell W 9s Wind 9 mph ★★★★★
Thu
3–5 ft Swell W 8s Wind 11 mph ★★★★★
Fri
3–5 ft Swell W 9s Wind 12 mph ★★★★★
Sat
4–6 ft Swell W 9s Wind 8 mph ★★★★★
Sun 25 Mon 26 Tue 27 Wed 28 Thu 29 Fri 30 Sat 31
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 06 09 12 15 18
Surf ft 16–22 15–20 13–17 12–16 9–13 5–7 5–7 4–6 7–10 7–10 10–13 10–13 10–13 10–14 10–13 8–11 7–10 6–9 6–8 5–8 4–6 4–5 3–5 3–4 3–4 3–4 3–4 3–4 3–4 3–5 4–6 4–6 4–6 4–6 4–6
Swell 10s 9s 8s 11s 10s 9s 6s 7s 6s 6s 7s 8s 8s 8s 7s 9s 9s 9s 9s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 10s 10s
Wind mph 30 30 26 22 19 22 27 25 28 27 21 22 22 20 16 12 13 15 13 8 7 9 17 16 12 14 15 16 13 10 10 8 12 13 11
Tide m 6.1↓ 2.1↓ 1.8↑ 6.3↑ 6.7↓ 6.9↓ 2.8↓ 1.0↑ 5.4↑ 7.4↓ 7.5↓ 3.9↓ 0.8↓ 4.2↑ 7.6↓ 7.5↑ 5.0↓ 1.0↓ 2.9↑ 7.3↑ 7.0↑ 5.9↓ 1.8↓ 2.0↑ 6.4↑ 6.0↑ 6.5↓ 2.9↓ 1.7↑ 5.2↑ – – – – –
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 NWW
W
5.8 m at 10 s (wind sea) · 100 % reaches the beach

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 04:17High7.1 m
  • Sun 10:44Low1.1 m
  • Sun 16:35High7.4 m
  • Sun 23:06Low0.9 m
  • Mon 04:55High7.4 m
  • Mon 11:24Low0.9 m
  • Mon 17:16High7.6 m
  • Mon 23:45Low0.7 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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