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Sandside Bay

★★★★★Good
Beach break Faces N high tide Offshore South West Best swell North West

Best of the week: today around 09:00, 6–8 ft and offshore.

Surf now5–8ft2.1 m at 8 s from the NW, wind sea 0.5 m from the W
Wind13mphSW · cross-off · gusts 24
Tide 3.6mFalling · low 04:58 (1.7 m). Works high tide.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sat
6–8 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 16 mph ★★★★★
Sun
11–15 ft Swell N 12s Wind 9 mph ★★★★★
Mon
12–16 ft Swell N 9s Wind 12 mph ★★★★★
Tue
5–8 ft Swell N 7s Wind 13 mph ★★★★★
Wed
5–7 ft Swell N 8s Wind 15 mph ★★★★★
Thu
4–6 ft Swell N 9s Wind 5 mph ★★★★★
Sat 14 Sun 15 Mon 16 Tue 17 Wed 18 Thu 19
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 6–8 6–8 6–9 6–9 6–8 14–18 11–15 11–14 10–13 9–12 11–15 11–14 9–12 7–10 6–8 7–9 6–8 5–8 5–7 5–7 4–6 4–6 5–7 5–7 5–7 5–7 5–7 5–6 4–6 4–6
Swell 8s 9s 9s 9s 9s 13s 12s 12s 12s 11s 10s 10s 9s 9s 9s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 8s 8s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s
Wind mph 11 16 17 15 11 16 9 13 9 7 20 23 20 15 13 13 13 13 11 12 20 15 15 15 15 9 9 7 5 4
Tide m 1.8↑ 3.4↑ 4.0↓ 2.5↓ 1.6↑ 1.9↑ 3.0↑ 3.8↑ 2.9↓ 1.8↓ 2.1↓ 2.6↑ 3.6↑ 3.3↓ 2.1↓ 2.5↓ 2.4↑ 3.3↑ 3.5↓ 2.5↓ 2.9↓ 2.3↓ 2.9↑ 3.6↑ 3.0↓ 3.3↓ 2.3↓ 2.4↑ 3.5↑ 3.4↓
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

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

Sandside Bay faces north. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from W round to NE; 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 NNWW
NW
2.1 m at 8 s (swell) · 100 % reaches the beach
W
0.5 m at 3 s (wind sea) · 31 % reaches the beach

How Sandside Bay works

Swell
Best from the north west.
Wind
Offshore is from the south west; anything with north in it is onshore and messes it up.
Tide
high tide.
Getting there
Drive past dounreay on the a836 follow signs to sandside bay.

Classic Left Hnaders of Massive swells.. offshore on Big Westely winds.. Beware the WARNING ABOUT NUCLEAR DEBRIS BEING FOUND ON THIS BEACH..

Tide times

  • Sat 04:58Low1.7 m
  • Sat 11:16High4.0 m
  • Sat 17:36Low1.6 m
  • Sat 23:48High3.6 m
  • Sun 05:38Low1.9 m
  • Sun 12:01High3.8 m
  • Sun 18:26Low1.8 m
  • Mon 00:47High3.4 m

Scrabster station, 15 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
A stormy afternoon at Sandside Bay, Reay - geograph.org.uk - 6466294 The beach at Sandside Bay - geograph.org.uk - 7574547

Colin Park, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Alan Reid, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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