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Porthtowan

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

Best of the week: Friday around 15:00, 6–8 ft and offshore.

Surf now1–2ft0.6 m at 9 s from the W, wind sea 0.4 m from the S
Wind10mphSE · offshore · gusts 17
Tide 2.9mFalling · low 01:58 (2.3 m). Works high tide.

Live webcam

Cornwall Guide

Open the Porthtowan cam by Cornwall Guide. Opens in a new tab.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sun
2–3 ft Swell W 4s Wind 6 mph ★★★★★
Mon
4–6 ft Swell W 8s Wind 6 mph ★★★★★
Tue
11–15 ft Swell W 7s Wind 21 mph ★★★★★
Wed
18–24 ft Swell W 12s Wind 18 mph ★★★★★
Thu
12–16 ft Swell W 11s Wind 15 mph ★★★★★
Fri
6–8 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 2–3 2–3 3–5 5–8 4–6 4–6 4–5 3–4 2–3 6–9 9–12 9–13 11–14 11–15 14–19 17–23 18–24 16–22 15–20 12–16 12–17 12–16 11–15 11–14 8–11 7–10 7–9 6–8 6–8
Swell 9s 4s 4s 5s 5s 8s 8s 8s 8s 3s 6s 7s 8s 11s 11s 12s 13s 12s 12s 12s 11s 12s 12s 11s 11s 10s 10s 9s 9s 9s
Wind mph 5 6 16 20 18 7 7 12 17 24 15 25 25 21 22 16 15 18 17 17 17 11 14 11 11 9 7 5 5 5
Tide m 4.8↑ 5.6↓ 3.5↓ 2.5↑ 4.2↑ 4.1↑ 5.4↓ 4.1↓ 2.7↓ 3.6↑ 3.6↑ 5.0↑ 4.6↓ 3.1↓ 3.1↑ 3.1↑ 4.5↑ 5.0↓ 3.7↓ 2.8↑ 2.9↓ 3.8↑ 5.2↑ 4.4↓ 2.7↓ 2.9↓ 3.0↑ 5.2↑ 5.1↓ 2.9↓
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

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

Porthtowan 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 NWWS
W
0.6 m at 9 s (swell) · 96 % reaches the beach
S
0.4 m at 2 s (wind sea) · blocked, 0 %

How Porthtowan works

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

Full on beach break, swith good protection from the winds.. can get busy, and every time i've surfed here i've come out injured.

Tide times

  • Sun 01:58Low2.3 m
  • Sun 08:07High5.7 m
  • Sun 14:30Low2.4 m
  • Sun 20:28High5.3 m
  • Mon 02:42Low2.6 m
  • Mon 08:55High5.4 m
  • Mon 15:23Low2.7 m
  • Mon 21:20High5.0 m

Perranporth station, 10 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
Porthtowan beach - geograph.org.uk - 2217445 Porthtowan Beach with surfers on a cloudy day by Kernow Skies

Paul E Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Kernow Skies, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Comments

3 Oct 2005 · sam da man wow. 2 weeks ago was so lush. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! amamzing! was a saturday! so good, so clean and hollow
24 Sep 2005 · surfergirl yeh this my local break and its hectic! dusnt get that big but wen its firing its sick to surf .
26 May 2005 · sam (spunger) i love it. can dump at high tide. i was there once, it held the most lushest 5ft glassy wave. try it when its working
19 Apr 2005 · BK Surfed here a few days ago, good break... not too big tho. Quiet, i guess you have to go out of season and mid week... Had it to myself ohh yeah.

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