Live wave height, wind and water temp — plus an 8-day forecast scored 0–100 for every sport.
Photo: Derek Harper / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Today at Sandways Beach: Epic! for kite foiling — 92/100 for expert level. Wind 9 kn S · Waves 1.3 m, 8 s · Tide -1.3 to 0.5 m. Best window around 21:00 UTC. Today's conditions at Sandways Beach: 0.8m waves with moderate onshore wind. Kite Foiling looks Excellent in the afternoon, with Wing Foiling also worth considering. Water temperature is 16°C / 62°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.
Sandways Beach 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 onshore at 9 kn. Onshore is the safest direction for kite foiling here — anything that goes wrong drifts you back to the beach — at the cost of a choppier surface.
Over the published window Sandways Beach 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, 10 of 10 daylight hours clear that line at Intermediate.
Among the 31 scored spots within reach today, Sandways Beach ranks 6th 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, secluded sand-and-pebble cove in the sheltered western arm of Plymouth Sound, within the UK's first National Marine Park, reached by a short walk along the coast path. Calm water suits swimming, SUP, kayaking and snorkelling rather than surf. No lifeguard cover; cliff falls have been reported. Tidal range is large - the sandy area largely disappears at high water and rocks are exposed at low tide, so low-to-mid tide is the recommended window.
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Get the free Sandways Beach widgetToday's conditions for Sandways 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 Sandways Beach today: 9 kn S (gusting 28 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 Sandways Beach today: 1.3 m, 8 s period from SE, 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 Sandways Beach today is around 10:00 UTC, when conditions score 85/100 for intermediate level. Conditions can shift by the hour — the 4Shor app shows the full 24-hour score chart.
For beginners, Sandways Beach scores 80/100 today for kite 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.
Sandways 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.
Sandways Beach is a coastal location near Kingsand 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 Sandways 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.
