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Sandside Bay

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

Best of the week: today around 06:00, 5–6 ft and offshore.

Surf now5–6ft1.7 m at 9 s from the NW, wind sea 0.1 m from the SW
Wind9mphS · offshore · gusts 15
Tide 3.2mRising · high 07:11 (4.1 m). Works high tide.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Wed
5–6 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 9 mph ★★★★★
Thu
5–6 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 7 mph ★★★★★
Fri
4–6 ft Swell NW 8s Wind 22 mph ★★★★★
Sat
5–7 ft Swell W 9s Wind 29 mph ★★★★★
Sun
5–7 ft Swell W 8s Wind 14 mph ★★★★★
Mon
3–4 ft Swell N 7s Wind 17 mph ★★★★★
Tue
2–4 ft Swell W 9s Wind 12 mph ★★★★★
Wed 7 Thu 8 Fri 9 Sat 10 Sun 11 Mon 12 Tue 13
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 06 09 12 15 18
Surf ft 5–6 5–6 5–7 5–7 5–7 5–7 5–7 4–6 4–6 4–6 2–3 4–5 3–5 4–6 4–6 4–6 5–7 5–7 7–9 7–9 6–8 5–7 5–7 5–7 4–6 3–4 3–4 2–3 2–3 1–2 1–2 1–2 2–3 3–4 3–5
Swell 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 3s 7s 5s 8s 8s 8s 9s 10s 10s 10s 9s 8s 8s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 8s 9s 10s 11s
Wind mph 9 9 6 6 9 5 7 6 6 8 26 27 26 25 20 30 29 27 29 32 20 16 14 11 4 21 17 22 21 19 10 14 15 5 13
Tide m 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↑ 1.2↑ 3.8↑ 4.3↓ 1.9↓ 1.3↑
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

Surf is the face height at the beach after the swell is filtered for the way Sandside 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 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 Saturday 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

Sandside Bay faces north. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from W 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 NNWSW
NW
1.7 m at 9 s (swell) · 100 % reaches the beach
SW
0.1 m at 2 s (wind sea) · blocked, 0 %

How Sandside Bay 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 past dounreay on the a836 follow signs to sandside bay.

Classic Left Hnaders of Massive swells.. offshore on Big Westely winds.. Beware the WARNING ABOUT NUCLEAR DEBRIS BEING FOUND ON THIS BEACH..

Tide times

  • 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
  • Fri 02:23Low0.6 m

Scrabster station, 15 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
A stormy afternoon at Sandside Bay, Reay - geograph.org.uk - 6466294 The beach at Sandside Bay - geograph.org.uk - 7574547

Colin Park, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Alan Reid, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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