SEEsurf

Find surfing waves around London & south-east England

(scroll down to skip to the list of surf spot info)

Introduction

SEEsurf is a free resource that increases the accessibility of surfing for those in London and the Home Counties, by collating online forecasts with tidal sensitivity and direct webcam links. Conditions here are fickle, hence the need to be scrupulous. That said, this corner of the UK has surf on a weekly basis outside of high summer, with weather systems that typically oscillate between south-westerlies and brief northerlies.

For the purposes of this tool – aiding regular surfing for those in and around the capital – surf spots included are those considered within a day-trip from Greater London (less than 2.5 hours' drive from a point within the M25 ringroad). The furthest spots listed are therefore in Dorset and Norfolk.

The list is not exhaustive, but a list of main spots within the aforementioned range. You may find value in exploring liminal breaks that work with specific swell and create conditions that suit your equipment and skills. For example, surfing points created by harbour walls and jetties, or using soft-top boards to minimise risk when surfing shore-breaks.

Guidelines

❗Enter the water at your own risk. Good physical health, the ability to swim, a wetsuit of appropriate thickness, and a board that suits your ability, are all key to a safe and enjoyable session. Check Surfers Against Sewage for water quality, and find other links under the Further Information and Resources section further down.

↕️ Tidal sensitivity info is more relevant around spring tides than neap tides, and big swells can overcome the tidal sensitivities described on the list. For example, a big swell (5ft+) on a neap tide will be reliable outside of a spot's optimum tidal window. Conversely, time your session to perfection when surfing a small swell on a spring tide! Tide heights are provided by online forecasts.

💨Northerly or westerly? Know the wider picture: Alongside specific spot forecasts, check sites like Windy or Ventusky to know the direction of the next storm or strong wind that will create the local windswell, ocean groundswell or something in-between. If these terms are unfamiliar to you, scroll down to the Information For Beginners section.

📹 Webcams: Not all cameras view the best surfing area, and conditions often appear underwhelming from a distance due to lack of depth perception, or long gaps between sets. Only by paddling out can you truly discover if a break, in certain conditions, provides fun or progression worthy of the distance travelled.

⚓ Respect for local surfers: You have a right to surf anywhere, but please be sensitive to local surf communities. For example, if you were to arrive at a spot in the best conditions, on a weekend, without having surfed there before, then your lack of experience will likely disrupt the line-up and result in wasted waves. Avoid being an interloper by surfing in average conditions and at off-peak times to build knowledge and rapport.

Below is a list of tidal info, webcam links & surf forecast links for each spot

The list goes clockwise along England's coast from Norfolk to Dorset

Not sure where to start? Check Windy.com for an overall view of current weather systems

Basic diagram of the region in question, the south-eastern quarter of England, with annotation

_ ↗️ EAST ANGLIA & ESSEX ↗️ _

Cromer & East Runton, Norfolk

🕒 Tidal sensitivity: Mid-high tide is best
📽️ Webcams: Glide Surf School, Visit Sheringham
🛰️ Surf-forecast • Surfline

Sea Palling, Norfolk

🕒 Tidal sensitivity: Pool 1 from low-mid tide, Pool 2 from mid-high
📽️ Webcam: Kingfisher Fish Bar, Walcott
🛰️ Surf-forecast • Surfline

Gorleston-on-sea, Norfolk

🕒 Tidal sensitivity: Low-mid tide is best
📽️ Webcam: Gorleston Pavilion
🛰️ Surf-forecast • Surfline

Southwold and Walberswick, Suffolk

🕒 Tidal sensitivity: Low-mid tide is best
📽️ Webcam: Deben Estuary
🛰️ Surf-forecast • Surfline

Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex

🕒 Tidal sensitivity: An hour either side of high tide is best
📽️ Webcam: Deben Estuary
🛰️ Surf-forecast • Surfline

↘️ KENT ↘️

Botany Bay, Kent

🕒 Tidal sensitivity: Around high tide is best
📽️ Webcam: Use Joss Bay's
🛰️ Surf-forecast • Surfline

Joss Bay, Kent

🕒 Tidal sensitivity: Low-mid tide is best
📽️ Webcam:Joss Bay
🛰️ Surf-forecast • Surfline

Stone Bay, Kent

🕒 Tidal sensitivity: Around high tide is best
📽️ Webcam: Devonhurst Hotel
🛰️ Surf-forecast • Surfline

Viking Bay, Kent

🕒 Tidal sensitivity: Low-mid tide is best
📽️ Webcam: Kent Surf School
🛰️ Surf-forecast • Surfline

Folkestone Harbour, Kent

🕒 Tidal sensitivity: Low tide
📽️ Webcam: Folkestone Harbour Company
🛰️ Surf-forecast • Surfline

Dymchurch, Kent

🕒 Tidal sensitivity: Mid-high tide is best
📽️Webcam: Hugofox
🛰️ Surf-forecast (closest) • Surfline (closest)

⬇️ SUSSEX ⬇️

N.B East of the promontory is best for strong SW-SSW winds, while more clean conditions and groundswells are best surfed on the West Beach

The Witterings & Bracklesham, West Sussex

🕒 Tidal sensitivity: Avoid tidal extremes, particularly on small swells and spring tides
📽️ Webcam: Shore (East Wittering)
🛰️ Surf-forecast • Surfline

↙️ HAMPSHIRE & DORSET ↙️

The Isle of Wight is omitted due to the ferry crossing, but good time management may redeem the resultant delay, given the amenities onboard the ferry. Surf at Compton if there's groundswell and Sandown Bay/Shanklin in a SW storm

Highcliffe & Barton, Hampshire

🕒 Tidal sensitivity: Avoid low tide particularly on small swells and spring tides
📽️ Webcam: Sorted Surf Shop Boscombe, is the closest
🛰️ Surf-forecast • Surfline

Boscombe Pier, Dorset

🕒 Tidal sensitivity: Marginal
📽️ Webcam:Sorted Surf Shop
🛰️ Surf-forecast • Surfline

Bournemouth Pier, Dorset

🕒 Tidal sensitivity: Marginal
📽️ Webcam: Sorted Surf Shop
🛰️ Surf-forecast • Surfline

Kimmeridge, Dorset

🕒 Tidal sensitivity: All tides, at the main break (Ledges, to the east)
📽️ Webcam: Sorted Surf Shop in Bournemouth is the closest
🛰️ Surf-forecast • Surfline

External Links

Social Media

Instagram
SEEsurf page
East London Surf Collective
Surf Norfolk

Facebook
East Anglia Surf Buddies
Kent Surf School
Sussex Surfers
London Surfers Liftshare

Other weblinks

Free resources
Windy.com
Ventusky.com
Surfers Against Sewage
O'Neill wetsuit thickness guide
"Crap Surfer" guide to East Sussex
Kent Surf; advice on scouting spots
Nulltool surfboard volume calculator

Local Businesses
Itmackin apparel (Norfolk)
Nyord Wetsuits (Essex)
Blue Chip shop & repairs (South London)

Information for non-advanced surfers

Practicalities, habits and expectations 🚗🏋️🛹

Whilst it's common to learn to surf during an intense period living or holidaying near a consistent ocean break, you can still learn and progress in this region if you know what conditions to look for. Keep in mind that surfing poor conditions isn't reflection of your ability, rather; learning to surf well despite poor conditions elevates your skill.

Naturally, favourable conditions are usually found further towards, and facing, the open ocean – so Dorset and Norfolk are the most consistent areas. However, it's beneficial to paddle out at your most local break, get to know its nuances and learn without the pressure of a longer drive. For example, Surfers in Surrey and south London typically gravitate more to the Sussex coast, while north and east Londoners (and those in Hertfordshire & Essex) find East Anglia's breaks more accessible.

Outside of high summer, decent bread-and-butter conditions in the wider south-east will be something like: 1.5m (5ft) at 6-7 seconds; which amounts to a 1m (3ft) breaking wave face (with 3ft @ 10-seconds as a barometer*).

Be methodical: Keep paddling out and exloring, and you will improve even if it doesn't feel that way after some sessions. Make a habit of paddling hard and dipping your head forward to help the board slide down the wave face, before using your pop-up as final shunt to drop in. If you're too tired to paddle properly, take a break. Quicken your progression with habits like practicing pop-ups at home, watching surf events via the World Surf League and skateboarding when surf isn't available.

Awareness, safety & etiquette 👀🦺🤝

Wave faces break when they are as high as the water is deep, which is important to remember when it comes to safety. If you pop up go down the line (across) on a 3ft wave, then you have around 3ft of water to fall into.

Surf etiquette means giving way to the surfer closest to the "peak", or breaking area of the wave. There is plenty of information available elsewhere on positioning, communicating, duck-diving, sharing waves, and respecting locals, but you'll also learn this as you go.

Wave period 🌊🔍📊

The difference between windswell and groundswell is a sliding scale, measured by wave period; the gap between each wave breaking, in seconds. Higher period swells arrive further apart and in wider "lines" of swell, because they have pulsed through deeper areas of sea or ocean, gathering and consolidating energy. Groundswell is more powerful and can "wrap in" to spots more than windswell, but it is easily shrunk or "killed off" by shallow bathymetry.

When groundswell arrives at a break, it sucks water in more powerfully, temporarily decreasing the depth in front of the wave, causing the wave to break more suddenly and steeply. Certain beaches and reefs can aid the breaking of waves for surfing, but the higher the period, the less perfect the incline has to be. Look out for the period being at least 6-7 seconds, as waves with period below 6 seconds will usually be too weak or "gutless" to enjoy surfing

*A rule of thumb to figure out the height and power of breaking wave faces is to multiply the forecasted wave size by a 10th of the wave period. For example, a 10-second wave is generally true to the forecasted wave/swell height, Meanwhile, a 15-second period swell will appear around 1.5x bigger as it breaks, so a forecasted 2ft swell @ 15 seconds will look and feel closer to a 3ft wave @ 10 second when you surf it. Conversely a 5-6 second period swell – the bare minimum surfable wave period – will break with a rideable wave face that is a little over half of the forecasted wave/swell height.

Wave period is rounded up and down by forecasting sites (E.g. 5.6 and 6.4 are significantly different but will show up the same on most forecasts) so If you want to know a more exact wave period to work out if it's worth the trip, then check the nearest Bigsalty forecast for decimalised detail

If you want to know the highest chance that a groundswell will reach a chosen break; check the North Sea bathymetry map, the Dover Strait bathymetry map or the English Channel bathymetry map that show where the deeper areas are.

Wind 🌬️🎐🍃

Offshore winds - or no wind at all - are typically best for surfing as the create "clean" conditions that ensure the wave breaks at the very last moment, just as the water beneath it becomes shallower than the wave height. Onshore wind does the opposite, dissipating the wave's energy, as well as creating "bumps" or "chop"; ultra-low period waves that interrupt the steepness of the wave face. Windswell (low-period waves) with this ultra-low windswell, and the wind itself, can be too messy to enjoy. Surfers call these conditions "blown out".

Paradoxically, wind-swells rely on local onshore winds! So, waiting for offshore winds is then counter-productive unless you are on an ocean-facing spot with distant groundswell arriving into a prevailing offshore wind.

To remedy this, surfers in sheltered regions look for cross-shore conditions at spots that slightly "tuck in" behind a headland or artificial structure to be cross-off-shore, with the windswell able to wrap in. For instance, let's say a south-westerly storm in the English Channel passes the south coast at Littlehampton, then fades to a light westerly wind. The slightly south-east facing beach on the east side of the promontory (river structure) will then have "cross-offshore" conditions, with the main windswell able to turn or "wrap" into the beach. Much of the chop/bump is then cut out by the promontory. During a northerly, this happens at places like Stone Bay in Kent and Walberswick in Suffolk.

Energy ⚡⚡⚡

If it's looking borderline surfable or almost flat, take into account the "energy"; the number in white on a black ribbon beneath the Wave Graph on surf-forecast.com. This number needs to be 100+ or at the very least above 90. Normally the wave height and period will reflect this number.

Board lust 🤤😋🎁

It can be tempting to covet bigger boards like longboards and SUPs, especially after a poor session. Once you have nailed the basics then a decent quality 6-7ft board with 45+ litres of volume is adequate. You will get there with practice.

Although longboards allow an earlier pop-up, longboarding is a separate sport and the decision to switch over should not be taken lightly, and not before you have learnt to surf, as longboards are more dangerous to yourself and others. There is also a lower technical ceiling with longboarding and a reduced accessibility in terms of transporting them.

On the other end of the spectrum, it may be tempting to buy a shortboard before you are ready, so make sure you are pushing your groveller, short foamie or mid-length to its limits before transitioning to a performance shortboard.