Home / North East / Scarborough

South Bay

★★★★★Small
Beach break Faces E mid to high tide Offshore West Best swell East
Surf now1–2ft0.6 m at 7 s from the NE, wind sea 1.8 m from the SE
Wind22mphS · cross-off · gusts 42
Tide 4.9mFalling · low 22:02 (1.7 m). Works mid to high tide.

Live webcam

2 cameras

Open the Scarborough seafront (Farson) cam by Farson Digital Watercams · HD stream, free to view. Opens in a new tab.

Open the Scarborough South Bay (surf-forecast) cam by surf-forecast.com. Opens in a new tab.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sat
1–2 ft Swell SE 5s Wind 22 mph ★★★★★
Sun
0 ft Swell W 4s Wind 30 mph ★★★★★
Mon
3–4 ft Swell E 8s Wind 17 mph ★★★★★
Tue
1–2 ft Swell S 4s Wind 20 mph ★★★★★
Wed
0 ft Swell SW 3s Wind 17 mph ★★★★★
Thu
0–1 ft Swell N 6s Wind 13 mph ★★★★★
Fri
0–1 ft Swell N 6s Wind 15 mph ★★★★★
Sat 24 Sun 25 Mon 26 Tue 27 Wed 28 Thu 29 Fri 30
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 1–2 0 0 0 0 0 1–2 2–3 1–2 2–3 3–4 1–2 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0–1 0 0–1
Swell 5s 4s 4s 5s 5s 9s 11s 11s 11s 4s 8s 4s 3s 3s 3s 3s 3s 3s 2s 2s 2s 3s 3s 3s 6s 6s 6s 6s 5s 7s 6s
Wind mph 23 30 27 28 23 19 9 7 13 15 17 20 20 27 23 17 17 16 17 14 11 10 11 11 13 11 16 16 15 14 13
Tide m 4.5↓ 3.6↓ 1.2↓ 3.1↑ 5.7↑ 4.2↓ 4.3↓ 1.3↓ 2.3↑ 5.6↑ 4.8↓ 5.1↓ 1.7↓ 1.7↑ 5.1↑ 5.4↓ 5.6↓ 2.4↓ 1.3↑ 4.4↑ 5.7↓ 5.8↓ 3.3↓ 1.3↑ 3.6↑ 5.7↑ – – – – –
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

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

South Bay faces east. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from NE round to SE; 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 ENESE
NE
0.6 m at 7 s (swell) · 50 % reaches the beach
SE
1.8 m at 5 s (wind sea) · 25 % reaches the beach

How South Bay works

Swell
Best from the east.
Wind
Offshore is from the west; anything with east in it is onshore and messes it up.
Tide
mid to high tide.
Getting there
Park anywhere

Good for shelter from strong northley winds, it's usually still rubbish but you can get a wave. Gentley sloping beaches make for a slow weak wave ideal for beginers. Occationaly it'll turn it on when a clean southly/eastly swell hits.. but it's rarely very good.

Tide times

  • Sat 22:02Low1.7 m
  • Sun 02:56High5.7 m
  • Sun 09:21Low1.2 m
  • Sun 15:23High5.8 m
  • Sun 21:40Low1.4 m
  • Mon 03:33High5.9 m
  • Mon 09:57Low1.0 m
  • Mon 15:59High5.9 m

Scarborough station, under 1 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

All 15
Fickle Beach break over rocks, pretty weak most of the time, so is good for beginers and longboards. Can get really good on a low tide, but the exposed rocks have dmaged many a board. South Bay South Bay The exception to the rule!! you cant get barreled at south bay!! South Bay Good for shelter from strong northley winds, it's usually still rubbish but you can get a wave. Gentley sloping beaches make for a slow weak wave ideal for beginers. Occationaly it'll turn it on when a clean southly/eastly swell hits.. but it's rarely very good. South Bay

Members' own photos of South Bay. Credits: Lanza, Col Coupland.

Comments

1 Jan 2010 · silvabak magic!! ie. turns s*** occasionly into something that doesn't resemble 'it' at all!
1 Jan 2010 · eightlegged Works well in big south easterly swells. It can clean up Big northly swell in Strong N/NE winds but often disapoints in those conditions.
21 Jul 2005 · Tom Great Wave
10 Jul 2005 · leeskin south bays only suitable for large fraggles or small beavers
24 Dec 2004 · d leave it to the longboarders, begginners and the masses..its hard to remember having any good sessions here...but sometimes it is the only options when big N swell arrives accompnied with a NW wind. Use this spot in a SE'erly to indicate what other waves elsewhere coast will be doing ;)
27 Sep 2004 · emidssurf surfed south bay after a couple of hours at Cayton this Sat. South Bay had some fun peaks but rides were pretty short. Nice mellow vibe!!
9 Jan 2003 · Sie Baker south bay slop!!
9 Jan 2003 · Danny has it's momments... good for hiding from NE winds.

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