Live wave height, wind and water temp — plus an 8-day forecast scored 0–100 for every sport.
Today at Porthcawl Rest Bay Beach: Epic! for surfing — 95/100 for beginner level. Wind 9 kn SE · Waves 1.0 m, 13 s · Tide -2.2 to 1.1 m. Best window around 17:00 UTC. Today's conditions at Porthcawl Rest Bay Beach: 0.6m waves with moderate cross-shore wind. Kite Foiling looks Epic! in the midday, with Surfing also worth considering. Water temperature is 16°C / 61°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.
Porthcawl Rest Bay Beach faces SW, straight into the prevailing Atlantic swell window — the reason it has waves at all, and the reason it is rarely flat.
Today's wind is cross-shore at 9 kn. Straight cross-shore sits between the two for surfing — the face stays rideable but the wall is less organised than on a clean offshore.
Over the published window Porthcawl Rest Bay Beach clears 60/100 for surfing at Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced levels — that is who this spot is for on this sport. Today, 5 of 10 daylight hours clear that line at Intermediate.
Among the 31 scored spots within reach today, Porthcawl Rest Bay Beach ranks 4th for 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 wide, exposed southwest-facing sandy beach open to Atlantic swell, with a beach-and-point break, lefts and rights, and a rocky headland to the north. Also used for windsurfing and kitesurfing, with a watersports centre and surf school on site; often crowded. Dogs banned on the main section 1 May-30 September. RNLI lifeguards patrol daily 10:00-18:00 in summer. Large tidal range, bigger as tide floods. An incoming-tide rip runs the north headland.
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Wind at Porthcawl Rest Bay Beach today: 9 kn SE (gusting 19 kn). Wind direction relative to the shore affects 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 Porthcawl Rest Bay Beach today: 1.0 m, 13 s period from SE, 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 surfing at Porthcawl Rest Bay Beach today is around 22:00 UTC, when conditions score 88/100 for intermediate level. Conditions can shift by the hour — the 4Shor app shows the full 24-hour score chart.
For beginners, Porthcawl Rest Bay Beach scores 95/100 today for surfing — Epic!. 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.
Porthcawl Rest Bay 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.
Porthcawl Rest Bay Beach is a coastal location near Porthcawl 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 Porthcawl Rest Bay 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.
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