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Bay of Skaill

★★★★★Small
Beach break Faces W all tides Offshore east Best swell west

Best of the week: Thursday around 19:00, 4–6 ft and offshore.

Surf now10–14ft2.6 m at 11 s from the W, wind sea 1.8 m from the SW
Wind22mphSW · onshore · gusts 34
Tide 2.6mFalling · low 23:04 (1.3 m). Works all tides.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sun
10–14 ft Swell W 11s Wind 22 mph ★★★★★
Mon
11–16 ft Swell W 7s Wind 29 mph ★★★★★
Tue
11–15 ft Swell W 10s Wind 20 mph ★★★★★
Wed
7–10 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 12 mph ★★★★★
Thu
4–6 ft Swell N 6s Wind 3 mph ★★★★★
Fri
2–3 ft Swell S 3s Wind 17 mph ★★★★★
Sat
15–22 ft Swell W 9s Wind 19 mph ★★★★★
Sun 4 Mon 5 Tue 6 Wed 7 Thu 8 Fri 9 Sat 10
Time 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 10–14 11–16 12–16 13–18 15–21 15–21 11–15 10–14 9–13 8–12 8–11 7–10 7–10 7–9 6–9 6–9 6–8 5–8 5–8 4–6 4–6 2–3 2–3 4–6 5–7 5–8 9–13 11–16 13–19 15–21 15–21
Swell 11s 7s 8s 8s 9s 8s 10s 10s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 6s 9s 7s 6s 6s 3s 4s 5s 5s 5s 7s 7s 8s 9s 9s
Wind mph 22 29 27 30 31 27 20 18 22 16 15 12 12 12 10 8 14 13 11 9 4 17 20 17 18 16 14 16 19 19 19
Tide m 2.6↓ 2.7↓ 2.1↓ 1.7↑ 2.3↑ 2.9↑ 2.7↑ 2.6↓ 1.6↓ 1.9↑ 3.0↑ 2.6↑ 3.0↓ 1.7↓ 1.5↑ 2.9↑ 2.3↑ 3.3↓ 1.9↓ 1.2↑ 2.6↑ 2.0↑ 3.4↑ 2.3↓ 1.0↑ 2.3↑ 1.6↑ 3.4↑ 2.6↓ 0.9↓ 1.8↑
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

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

Bay of Skaill faces west. Swell inside the lit window reaches the beach; anything from behind the headlands scores nothing, however big the buoy says it is.

NESWfaces WWSW
W
2.6 m at 11 s (swell) · 100 % reaches the beach
SW
1.8 m at 5 s (wind sea) · 93 % reaches the beach

How Bay of Skaill works

Swell
Best from the west.
Wind
Offshore is from the east; anything with west in it is onshore and messes it up.
Tide
all tides.

Orkney's main surf beach, beside Skara Brae.

Tide times

  • Sun 23:04Low1.3 m
  • Mon 05:44High2.7 m
  • Mon 11:41Low1.7 m
  • Mon 18:02High2.9 m
  • Tue 00:30Low1.1 m
  • Tue 07:09High2.9 m
  • Tue 12:55Low1.5 m
  • Tue 19:12High3.1 m

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

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Nearby

No other breaks within 40 km on the guide.