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Thurso East

★★★★★Small
Faces N all tides Offshore South East Best swell North West

Best of the week: Thursday around 17:00, 3–4 ft and offshore.

Surf now1–2ft2.3 m at 8 s from the NW, wind sea 0.6 m from the W
Wind12mphSW · cross-off · gusts 21
Tide 3.6mFalling · low 04:58 (1.7 m). Works all tides.

Live webcam

surf-forecast.com

Open the Thurso East (surf-forecast) cam by surf-forecast.com. Opens in a new tab.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sat
2–3 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 16 mph ★★★★★
Sun
9–13 ft Swell NW 11s Wind 12 mph ★★★★★
Mon
6–8 ft Swell N 9s Wind 9 mph ★★★★★
Tue
6–8 ft Swell N 7s Wind 8 mph ★★★★★
Wed
3–5 ft Swell N 9s Wind 11 mph ★★★★★
Thu
3–4 ft Swell N 9s Wind 2 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 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 11–15 9–12 9–12 9–12 8–11 9–13 8–12 7–10 7–9 6–8 6–9 5–7 5–7 4–6 4–6 4–5 3–5 3–5 3–5 4–5 4–5 3–5 3–5 3–4 3–4
Swell 8s 9s 9s 9s 9s 13s 12s 12s 11s 11s 10s 10s 9s 9s 9s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 6s 7s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s
Wind mph 12 13 17 13 12 20 13 14 11 11 12 19 18 12 9 8 9 9 9 9 15 11 11 11 11 6 5 4 3 2
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 Thurso East 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

Thurso East faces north. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from NW 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
2.3 m at 8 s (swell) · 20 % reaches the beach
W
0.6 m at 4 s (wind sea) · 7 % reaches the beach

How Thurso East works

Swell
Best from the north west.
Wind
Offshore is from the south east; anything with north in it is onshore and messes it up.
Tide
all tides.
Getting there
Heard of John O'Groats? just to the West of there. The break is to the East of the river Thurso infront of the Castle.

The premier Wave in the UK.. One of the Fastest Barrelling waves in the world and recently voted in the 10 ten waves of europe is Surf Europe. This Place Rocks. If you've never been the Massive drive to the tip of northern Scotland can produce some of the best waves your ever likely to get. Add to that a small extremely friendly group of local surfers ( who are usually shit hot! ) who make it a pleasant place to be at Low tide, and provide a Spectical at High tide when House size barrells regually fire off.

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, 3 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

All 17
Morning glass at thurso Thurso East Get than arn dug in. White Lines!! Thurso East Thurso East Get your arm as deep as you can and hold on!! thurso perfection on a Warm and Sunny March Morning!

Members' own photos of Thurso East. Credits: Oly - 899prod, Sie Baker.

Comments

1 Jan 2010 · eightlegged At high tide this has to be one of the fastest, biggest barreling waves in the UK. At low tide it will still kick your arse, but you might just make one!! unless your used to these kind of waves of course.
25 Sep 2005 · Tony Went Kayak Surfing on 15 foot waves yesterday. WOW FANTASTIC but a little busy with lots of boardies
26 Mar 2005 · a local good but very innconsistent brimms is way better
27 Feb 2005 · jd from sa livin in london. been wanting to surf thurso for a while now. need a spot to sleep for a few days of surf and in exchange youll always have a place to sleep in sa on the lower south coast near a lot of wicked spots (got the land - saving up now to build so you might have to wait 2 years before you can stay over - you always welcome to crash on my land in a tent while im in london. jaydeemarx@yahoo.co.uk by the way - footage is unreal
27 Oct 2004 · GROM Absolutly unreal, it's a diffrent world, just quit your job and go
13 Oct 2004 · Rick A new cool surf shop on the harbour too.
30 Sep 2004 · nick thurso east rocks

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