Live wave height, wind and water temp — plus an 8-day forecast scored 0–100 for every sport.
Photo: Mhdelaney / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Today at Ballymastocker Beach: Poor for kite surfing — 34/100 for intermediate level. Wind 4 kn SE · Waves 1.2 m, 14 s · Tide -0.9 to 0.2 m. Today's conditions at Ballymastocker Beach: 1.2m waves with light cross-shore wind. Surfing looks Excellent in the midday, with Paddleboarding also worth considering. Water temperature is 13°C / 56°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.
Ballymastocker Beach faces NE, so the prevailing westerly comes over the land before it reaches you. For kite surfing that usually means a gustier, less predictable flow than the raw wind speed suggests.
Today's wind is cross-shore at 4 kn. Straight cross-shore is the classic kite surfing direction: it lets you hold a line along the beach rather than fighting to get back to it.
Over the published window Ballymastocker Beach clears 60/100 for kite surfing at Intermediate, Advanced, Expert levels — that is who this spot is for on this sport. Today, 0 of 9 daylight hours clear that line at Intermediate.
Among the 31 scored spots within reach today, Ballymastocker Beach ranks 31st for kite surfing. 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 roughly 2 km arc of golden sand on Lough Swilly's eastern shore, within a Natural Heritage Area and Blue Flag-rated, gently sloping and rarely crowded. The beach break gives left and right-handers, exposed to North Atlantic swell, best on a north swell with offshore southwest wind -- winter is the main surf season, summer mostly flat. Seasonal lifeguards patrol 12:00-6:30pm, June-September, swimming between the flags.
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Get the free Ballymastocker Beach widgetToday's conditions for Ballymastocker 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 Ballymastocker Beach today: 4 kn SE (gusting 12 kn). Wind direction relative to the shore affects kite surfing 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 Ballymastocker Beach today: 1.2 m, 14 s period from NW, hollow character. 4Shor derives nearshore wave conditions from ECMWF IFS 9-km atmospheric data and the IBI regional ocean model, updated hourly.
For beginners, Ballymastocker Beach scores 44/100 today for surfing — Poor. 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.
Ballymastocker 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.
Ballymastocker Beach is a coastal location near Portsalon in Ireland. 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 Ballymastocker 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.
