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Melvich

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

Best of the week: Wednesday around 16:00, 3–5 ft and cross-off.

Surf now1–2ft1.9 m at 9 s from the NW, wind sea 0.2 m from the W
Wind8mphSW · offshore · gusts 13
Tide 3.9mFalling · low 00:53 (1.1 m). Works high tide.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Tue
1–2 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 8 mph ★★★★★
Wed
3–5 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 7 mph ★★★★★
Thu
2–3 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 5 mph ★★★★★
Fri
2–3 ft Swell N 9s Wind 16 mph ★★★★★
Sat
2–3 ft Swell W 5s Wind 16 mph ★★★★★
Sun
2–3 ft Swell W 7s Wind 6 mph ★★★★★
Mon
2–3 ft Swell W 7s Wind 17 mph ★★★★★
Tue 6 Wed 7 Thu 8 Fri 9 Sat 10 Sun 11 Mon 12
Time 19 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 2–3 2–3 2–3 3–5 4–5 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–3 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 2–3 2–3 3–4 3–5 1–2 1–2 1–2 2–3 2–3 2–3 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2
Swell 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 7s 5s 5s 5s 5s 5s 7s 7s 6s 8s 8s 8s 8s 7s 7s 7s 7s 6s 6s
Wind mph 8 9 9 8 10 7 5 7 6 4 9 16 19 18 19 17 16 16 20 25 27 11 9 9 8 6 17 18 17 16 14
Tide m 4.1↓ 3.9↑ 3.6↓ 1.8↓ 2.1↑ 4.0↑ 3.6↑ 4.1↓ 2.1↓ 1.5↑ 3.7↑ 3.1↑ 4.5↓ 2.5↓ 1.1↑ 3.2↑ 2.4↑ 4.6↑ 3.0↓ 1.0↓ 2.6↑ 1.9↑ 4.5↑ 3.6↓ 1.1↓ 2.0↑ 1.4↑ 4.3↑ 4.0↓ 1.4↓ 1.5↑
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

Surf is the face height at the beach after the swell is filtered for the way Melvich 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 Friday 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

Melvich 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
1.9 m at 9 s (swell) · 24 % reaches the beach
W
0.2 m at 2 s (wind sea) · blocked, 0 %

How Melvich 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 to melvich, and follow signs to the beach.. once there run over th sand dunes and respect the locals... they're the nicest people you'll ever meet!

Beautiful beach break with a perfect A-Frame wave at high tide.. Some of the mellowest lefts to be found in the north of scotland.. It's not supposed to hold big swells.. but i've had a good head and a half here.. and it was damn good fun!!

Tide times

  • Wed 00:53Low1.1 m
  • Wed 07:11High4.1 m
  • Wed 13:18Low1.6 m
  • Wed 19:22High4.4 m
  • Thu 01:41Low0.8 m
  • Thu 07:56High4.4 m
  • Thu 14:02Low1.3 m
  • Thu 20:06High4.6 m

Scrabster station, 22 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
Mark from the curl.. riding a 6' 4" Single fin / Twin Fish Hybrid! Jez's Favorite kinda wave.. head high ( chest on normal people ) glassy perfection. Floater/stall type thing! Scottish dreamland!

Members' own photos of Melvich. Credits: Oly Banks, Mark.

Comments

30 Jul 2005 · Davey most rippable, mechanical yet mellow rights and lefts on the north shore. caught some of my best waves ever here. watch for the rip from the rivermouth on bigger days!!

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