What is the surf like at Porthtowan today?

This morning at Porthtowan: 2.5ft swell, cloud, 16°, 2kt ENE. Swell, wind and tide sit on this page so you can decide before you drive.

What is the Porthtowan surf forecast for the week?

Porthtowan this week: Poor now. Best looking Fri 25: pumping, 5.0ft.

How is the Porthtowan surf report scored?

Open-Meteo supplies swell, wind and weather on a three-hour cron. WorldTides supplies the high and low clocks. We then score Porthtowan for wrap, wind and the usual tide window. The number at the top is this hour. Later week cards are the best hour of that day. Height is the swell that makes the beach, not the raw model.

Porthtowan

Today · Tue 22 Sept · 04:20

Quality

Poor

Swell

2.5ft

Tide

15:2209:14

Weather

16°2kt ENE

6-day surf report

Updated Tue 22 Sept 04:20

Chapel Porth

Now · Tue 22

Poor

2.5ft

15–21°2kt ENE

15:2209:14

Wed 23

Clean

4.6ft

12s

11–18°5kt SW

16:0610:04

Thu 24

Clean

4.5ft

10–19°3kt E

16:4210:44

Fri 25

Pumping

5.0ft

14s

12–20°3kt SSW

17:1611:20

Sat 26

Pumping

7.2ft

10s

9–18°9kt NNW

17:4911:55

Sun 27

Clean

5.7ft

9–17°8kt SSE

18:2312:29

The beach

Porthtowan

Porthtowan sits on the North Coast run. Swell, wind and tide for this beach and the neighbours, so you can pick a peak before you leave the car park. Today is cloud, 16°, 2kt ENE.

Steeper beach break that gets hollow on a decent west swell and a dropping tide.

High tide is often a close-out onto the slope. Wait for the drop unless it is tiny.

Faces W. Best swell WSW–NW. Level: intermediate. Crowd: average.

On the sand

Before you paddle out at Porthtowan

Parking

Cornwall Council Beach Road (TR4 8AA, 137 spaces). 1 April–31 October 9am–6pm: £2.50 / £5.10 / £7.50 / £11.50, weekly £29; evening £2.30; winter no charge. Height/weight limits 2.1 m / 3,050 kg.

Hire & lessons

Tris Surf Shop & Surf School has been on Porthtowan Beach since the 1970s. Hire year-round when the beach is lifeguarded; seasonal lessons (max 8) timed to the tide.

Tris Surf Shop

Vibe

The RNLI calls it popular for bathing and surfing. Tris is a small grassroots shop for all ages, local and family, not a contest school.

Access & hazards

Met Office Porthtowan (Beach): high risk of rips. RNLI: at low tide the sand runs from Lushington Cove to Chapel Porth; at high tide it is a steeply shelving cove. Tris times lessons to tide for safer water. Seasonal RNLI cover in 2026.

Sources Cornwall Council Beach Road · Tris Surf Shop · RNLI Porthtowan · Met Office Porthtowan

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