Surf Report - updated 6 am Monday May 12 2008
This surf report is generated automatically from a variety of sources and criteria. It is currently in the developmental stage and is being tweaked all the time. It is therefore getting more accurate as we notice anomolies and tweak the algorithm to take them into account
| Wave size | Wind direction | Wind speed | Low tide | High tide | |
| Today AM | 1 ft | N | 7 mph | 03:18 (1.37m) | 09:01 (4.59m) |
| Today PM | 1 ft | N | 12 mph | 15:39 (1.65m) | 21:29 (4.79m) |
| Tomorrow AM | 1 ft | E | 14 mph | 04:22 (1.59m) | 10:10 (4.38m) |
| Wednesday | 1 ft | E | 16 mph | 18:02 (1.85m) | 23:56 (4.59m) |
Realtime webcam thanks to The Portreath Surf Lifesaving Club
Portreath webcam site
Today's weatherDrag the map with your mouse to navigate and use the plus and minus buttons to zoom. Arrow indicates wind direction
Portreath surfing information
Portreath is home to The Vortex a right hand reef break which peels of the harbour wall. This is not a wave for the light-hearted and definitely not suitable for beginners. The wave comes in from deeper water and hits the reef going from a lump to past vertical making air drops the norm. Combined with its propensity to barrel and form a wedgey inside this goes some way to explaining where it gets the name.
For obvious reasons (i.e. heavy and hollow) the Vortex is popular with bodyboarders, however there are usually a couple of stand up surfers giving it a go. If all this hasn't put you off then maybe the 'Locals Only' scrawled on the wall might!
The beach itself can produce a half decent wave and packs a fair punch itself on a good day
Being north facing and with high cliffs to the west the beach is fairly sheltered and needs a medium sized west/northwest swell to get it going. In terms of wind this is an advantage as a south-westerly is cross offshore. The Vortex can handle waves of up to 8ft
more information...
Portreath photos
This surf report is also available in RSS format at http://www.cornwalls.co.uk/surfing/cornwall-surf.xml. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an XML-based format for distributing Web content. 