Live wave height, wind and water temp — plus an 8-day forecast scored 0–100 for every sport.
Photo: Gary Houston / Wikimedia Commons · CC0
Today at Retro Beach: Good for kayaking — 79/100 for expert level. Wind 6 kn E · Tide -1.9 to 0.5 m. Best window around 11:00 UTC. Today's conditions at Retro Beach: 0.8m waves with light offshore wind. Kite Foiling looks Epic! in the midday, 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.
Retro Beach faces NW, open to the prevailing swell and wind. For kayaking that is the hard direction: expect the surface to be workable only when the forecast genuinely drops, not on an average day.
Today's wind is cross-offshore at 6 kn. Light enough that the surface should stay workable for kayaking.
Over the published window Retro Beach clears 60/100 for kayaking at Intermediate, Advanced, Expert levels — that is who this spot is for on this sport. Today, 10 of 10 daylight hours clear that line at Intermediate.
Among the 31 scored spots within reach today, Retro Beach ranks 4th 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 wide, flat sandy North Sea beach on Oostende's western stretch near the harbour wall. The beach break gives small, inconsistent surf, best in winter on north-northwest swell with offshore south-east wind; south-west to north-west winds suit kitesurfing and windsurfing. Kiting is limited to two zones in July-August, requiring certification, club membership and a ribbon; banned sunset to sunrise. Summer lifeguards patrol; tidal range is about 3.3 m.
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Get the free Retro Beach widgetToday's conditions for Retro 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 Retro Beach today: 6 kn E (gusting 16 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 Retro Beach today: 1.0 m, 7 s period from W, peeling 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 Retro Beach today is around 14:00 UTC, when conditions score 74/100 for intermediate level. Conditions can shift by the hour — the 4Shor app shows the full 24-hour score chart.
For beginners, Retro Beach scores 80/100 today for surfing — Excellent. 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.
Retro 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.
Retro Beach is a coastal location near Oostende in Belgium. 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 Retro 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.
