Live wave height, wind and water temp — plus an 8-day forecast scored 0–100 for every sport.
Photo: Chris Morgan / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Today at Porthminster Beach: Good for kayaking — 79/100 for expert level. Wind 4 kn SE · Tide -1.5 to 0.7 m. Best window around 17:00 UTC. Today's conditions at Porthminster Beach: 0.2m waves with light cross-shore wind. Kite Foiling looks Excellent in the afternoon, with E-Foiling also worth considering. Water temperature is 15°C / 60°F.
Forecast updated · ShorSense™
Today plus the next two days are free for everyone — scored in 3-hour windows, just like the app. The full 8-day forecast lives in the 4Shor app.
Porthminster Beach faces NE, tucked away from the prevailing westerly swell — the aspect that gives kayaking the flat, sheltered water it needs more often than an exposed coast would.
Today's wind is cross-shore at 4 kn. Light enough that the surface should stay workable for kayaking.
Over the published window Porthminster Beach clears 60/100 for kayaking at every ability from Beginner to Expert — an unusually broad spot, which normally means a range of conditions rather than one narrow sweet spot. Today, 10 of 10 daylight hours clear that line at Intermediate.
Among the 31 scored spots within reach today, Porthminster Beach ranks 2nd for kayaking. The order changes by discipline: the same conditions that put a spot top for one sport can drop it down the list for another.
Satellite-derived bathymetry with 10 m pixels and 10 cm vertical resolution out to ~40 m depth. The shape of the seabed is what determines where and how waves break.
Most apps run a single global model at 9–25 km. We blend regional NWP from national meteorological offices at 1.3–2 km — UK Met Office UKV, Météo-France AROME HD, ItaliaMeteo ICON-2I — with ECMWF IFS for the 8-day horizon. Finer resolution means the sea breeze, cliff funnelling and bay shadowing that changes everything for a session.
A nearshore wave model propagates the spectrum across the bathymetric mesh — modelling refraction, shoaling, dissipation, focusing and breaking as it goes. Most apps stop at swell + wind. We go further.
10 sport models × 4 ability levels weight wave height, period, wind, tide and breaking conditions differently — calibrated against ridden sessions so the scores mean what they say.
A large, sheltered, crescent-shaped, NE-facing golden-sand beach shielded from Atlantic swell, giving calm, flat-water conditions rather than surf. Sandy throughout, suited to swimming, SUP and kayak; at lower tides it broadens and joins the adjacent beach, widening the launch area. RNLI lifeguards patrol daily mid-May–late-Sept, 10am–6pm; swim between the flags. Dogs banned 10am–6pm, 15 May–30 Sept. On-beach centre offers supervised SUP and kayak hire.
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Get the free Porthminster Beach widgetToday's conditions for Porthminster Beach are free. Unlock the full 8-day forecast and per-sport alerts that ping you when this location is about to fire. more than 2,500 European locations, scored from the seabed up.
Wind at Porthminster Beach today: 4 kn SE (gusting 15 kn). Wind direction relative to the shore affects kayaking conditions significantly — offshore winds produce cleaner, glassier surfaces while onshore winds add chop. These are daily averages; the 4Shor app shows hourly detail.
Waves at Porthminster Beach today: 0.3 m, 14 s period from E, mushy character. 4Shor derives nearshore wave conditions from ECMWF IFS 9-km atmospheric data and the IBI regional ocean model, updated hourly.
The best window for kayaking at Porthminster Beach today is around 20:00 UTC, when conditions score 77/100 for intermediate level. Conditions can shift by the hour — the 4Shor app shows the full 24-hour score chart.
For beginners, Porthminster Beach scores 77/100 today for kite foiling — Good. A score of 65–79 is Good for a beginner; 80+ is Excellent (90+ is Epic!); below 45 the session is usually not worth it. 4Shor scores every location across Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Expert levels.
Porthminster Beach is scored for Surfing, Windsurfing, Kite Surfing, Kite Foiling, Wing Foiling, E-Foiling, Paddleboarding, Swimming, Kayaking, Canoeing in the 4Shor forecast system. Conditions are rated Beginner through Expert for each sport, updated every hour, so you always know whether the session is worth the drive.
Porthminster Beach is a coastal location near St Ives in United Kingdom. It is one of more than 2,500 European water-sport locations scored daily by 4Shor.
4Shor's ShorSense™ system combines satellite-derived seafloor mapping, nearshore wave models, wind and tide data to generate a hyper-local forecast. At Porthminster Beach, conditions are scored hourly on a 0–100 scale for each sport and ability level. A score of 80+ means Excellent (90+ Epic!); 65–79 is Good; below 45 the session is usually not worth the drive.
Questions about 4Shor itself — accuracy, pricing, the free trial — are answered on the FAQ page.
