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Praa Sands

★★★★★Small
Beach break Faces S low to mid tide Offshore north Best swell south

Best of the week: Saturday around 06:00, 3–4 ft and offshore.

Surf now9–12ft2.7 m at 11 s from the SW, wind sea 2.0 m from the W
Wind23mphW · cross-off · gusts 39
Tide 5.0mFalling · low 10:13 (0.9 m). Works low to mid tide.

Live webcam

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Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sun
8–11 ft Swell SW 11s Wind 22 mph ★★★★★
Mon
6–8 ft Swell S 6s Wind 25 mph ★★★★★
Tue
13–17 ft Swell SW 11s Wind 24 mph ★★★★★
Wed
6–8 ft Swell SW 9s Wind 16 mph ★★★★★
Thu
3–4 ft Swell W 8s Wind 10 mph ★★★★★
Fri
4–6 ft Swell W 9s Wind 12 mph ★★★★★
Sat
3–4 ft Swell W 8s Wind 12 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 8–12 8–11 7–10 6–9 6–8 6–8 7–10 8–11 9–12 9–13 13–17 12–16 11–15 10–13 9–12 6–8 5–8 5–7 5–6 4–6 3–4 2–3 2–4 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–3 3–4 4–5 4–6 3–4 3–4 2–4 3–4 2–3
Swell 11s 11s 11s 10s 10s 6s 7s 7s 7s 7s 11s 11s 11s 11s 11s 9s 9s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 8s 8s 8s 10s 10s
Wind mph 19 22 20 17 11 23 23 22 26 28 24 24 24 22 18 16 16 15 13 10 10 15 20 17 15 17 16 17 14 11 12 10 13 13 10
Tide m 4.0↓ 1.3↓ 1.9↑ 5.1↑ 4.4↓ 4.6↓ 1.6↓ 1.2↑ 4.7↑ 5.0↓ 5.1↓ 2.2↓ 0.7↑ 3.9↑ 5.4↓ 5.4↓ 2.9↓ 0.6↓ 2.9↑ 5.4↓ 5.3↑ 3.7↓ 1.0↓ 2.0↑ 5.1↑ 4.8↑ 4.3↓ 1.6↓ 1.4↑ 4.4↑ – – – – –
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

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

Praa Sands faces south. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from SE round to W; 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 SSWW
SW
2.7 m at 11 s (swell) · 100 % reaches the beach
W
2.0 m at 7 s (wind sea) · 69 % reaches the beach

How Praa Sands works

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

The south coast's banker when the north coast is blown out by a northerly.

Tide times

  • Sun 03:43High5.1 m
  • Sun 10:13Low0.9 m
  • Sun 16:01High5.4 m
  • Sun 22:32Low0.7 m
  • Mon 04:20High5.3 m
  • Mon 10:53Low0.7 m
  • Mon 16:37High5.5 m
  • Mon 23:12Low0.6 m

Porthleven station, 6 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
Praa Sands - Sydney Cove - geograph.org.uk - 3214968 Stream on the beach, Praa Sands - geograph.org.uk - 8358013

Stuart Logan, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Des Blenkinsopp, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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