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Porthcothan

★★★★★Fair
Beach break Faces NW low to mid tide Offshore south-east Best swell north-west

Best of the week: Monday around 06:00, 2–3 ft and offshore.

Surf now2–4ft0.9 m at 9 s from the W
Wind2mphSW · cross-on · gusts 3
Tide 5.0mRising · high 00:42 (5.4 m). Works low to mid tide.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sun
2–4 ft Swell W 9s Wind 2 mph ★★★★★
Mon
2–3 ft Swell W 8s Wind 4 mph ★★★★★
Tue
2–3 ft Swell W 8s Wind 6 mph ★★★★★
Wed
4–6 ft Swell N 5s Wind 17 mph ★★★★★
Thu
4–6 ft Swell NW 5s Wind 12 mph ★★★★★
Fri
5–7 ft Swell W 5s Wind 22 mph ★★★★★
Sat
4–6 ft Swell W 7s Wind 14 mph ★★★★★
Sun 4 Mon 5 Tue 6 Wed 7 Thu 8 Fri 9 Sat 10
Time 23 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 2–4 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–4 3–4 2–4 3–5 4–6 4–6 4–6 4–5 3–4 2–4 3–4 3–5 4–6 5–7 5–7 5–7 4–6 4–6 4–5 3–5
Swell 9s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 5s 5s 5s 5s 5s 5s 5s 4s 4s 5s 4s 4s 5s 5s 5s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s
Wind mph 2 4 5 5 6 3 6 4 3 10 9 18 19 20 21 18 12 12 12 11 8 17 18 20 22 15 13 14 15 14 11
Tide m 4.9↑ 3.1↓ 3.4↑ 5.3↑ 5.3↓ 3.4↓ 3.8↓ 2.5↑ 4.3↑ 6.1↓ 4.4↓ 4.8↓ 2.2↓ 3.1↑ 6.3↑ 5.6↓ 6.0↓ 2.4↓ 1.9↑ 5.9↑ 6.6↓ 6.8↓ 3.2↓ 1.1↑ 5.0↑ 7.3↓ 7.3↓ 4.1↓ 0.9↓ 3.8↑ 7.5↑
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

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

Porthcothan faces north-west. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from SW round to N; 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 NWW
W
0.9 m at 9 s (swell) · 100 % reaches the beach

How Porthcothan works

Swell
Best from the north-west.
Wind
Offshore is from the south-east; anything with north-west in it is onshore and messes it up.
Tide
low to mid tide.

Tide times

  • Mon 00:42High5.4 m
  • Mon 07:21Low2.9 m
  • Mon 13:29High5.6 m
  • Mon 20:25Low2.5 m
  • Tue 02:24High5.6 m
  • Tue 08:54Low2.5 m
  • Tue 14:58High6.1 m
  • Tue 21:41Low2.0 m

Padstow station, 8 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
Porthcothan beach - helicopter landing - geograph.org.uk - 2528951 Porthcothan Bay from south - geograph.org.uk - 6199682

Roy Parkhouse, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. David Hawgood, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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