Live wave height, wind and water temp — plus an 8-day forecast scored 0–100 for every sport.
Photo: Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Today at Praia do Garajau: Epic! for kite foiling — 96/100 for expert level. Wind 8 kn NE · Waves 0.9 m, 12 s · Tide -0.8 to 0.4 m. Best window around 16:00 UTC. Today's conditions at Praia do Garajau: 0.9m waves with moderate cross-shore wind. Kite Foiling looks Epic! in the midday, with Wing Foiling also worth considering. Water temperature is 23°C / 74°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.
Praia do Garajau faces S, and that aspect decides whether the day's wind arrives clean off the water or broken up by the land — which matters more for kite foiling than the forecast speed alone.
Today's wind is cross-shore at 8 kn. Straight cross-shore is the classic kite foiling direction: it lets you hold a line along the beach rather than fighting to get back to it.
Over the published window Praia do Garajau clears 60/100 for kite foiling 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, 5 of 11 daylight hours clear that line at Intermediate.
Among the 22 scored spots within reach today, Praia do Garajau ranks 10th for kite foiling. 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 small, sheltered volcanic-pebble cove below steep basalt cliffs, reached by cable car, within Portugal's only dedicated marine reserve. The dark pebble-and-rock bottom drops to depths up to 50 m in clear water - a diving and snorkelling site with marine life including grouper and manta rays, not a surf, kite, or windsurf spot. Fishing, spearfishing, and motorised navigation are restricted within the reserve. Rockfall is a noted hazard.
Put live Praia do Garajau conditions on your own website — a free embeddable widget, updated hourly, in three sizes. No account needed.
Get the free Praia do Garajau widgetToday's conditions for Praia do Garajau 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 Praia do Garajau today: 8 kn NE (gusting 22 kn). Wind direction relative to the shore affects kite foiling 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 Praia do Garajau today: 0.9 m, 12 s period from NW, 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 kite foiling at Praia do Garajau today is around 07:00 UTC, when conditions score 75/100 for intermediate level. Conditions can shift by the hour — the 4Shor app shows the full 24-hour score chart.
For beginners, Praia do Garajau scores 81/100 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.
Praia do Garajau is scored for Surfing, Windsurfing, Kite Surfing, Kite Foiling, Wing 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.
Praia do Garajau is a coastal location near Caniço in Portugal. 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 Praia do Garajau, 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.
