St Ives Bay, Cornwall

Surf and wave forecast for Godrevy and Gwithian beaches in St Ives Bay

Check the next seven days of wave height, period, direction and wind for Godrevy and Gwithian, with hourly detail and daily summaries.

About Surfing in St Ives Bay, Cornwall

St Ives Bay offers diverse surf experiences depending on your paddling spot. Porthmeor in St Ives, facing northwest into Atlantic swell, delivers punchy hollow peaks when sandbanks align, especially during mid to low tide.

In the main bay, the stretch from Hayle Estuary at the south end to Godrevy at the north consistently catches more swell due to its exposure and wider angle to the Atlantic. Here the waves are generally longer, open and larger. On days when Porthmeor is shoulder-high Gwithian can easily be overhead with size increasing as you move north towards Godrevy Head for a typical westerly swell.

St Ives Bay’s crescent shape provides numerous offshore wind options even in winter as long as the swells are big enough to get into what in summer are normally flat surf spots on the west side of the bay.

Godrevy surf outlook

7-day wave forecast

Hour-by-hour waves, period, wind and primary swell for Godrevy and Gwithian beaches in St Ives Bay.

Godrevy Forecast Summary

Hog Says

A well-aligned WNW swell brings minimal incoming swell energy to Godrevy with 8.3–8.7-second periods. Onshore winds favour messy conditions through the day.

Generated only from the hourly forecast values for this day.

1.5

1.0

0.44

1.5

1.0

0.36

1.4

1.0

0.36

1.4

0.9

0.34

1.3

0.9

0.33

1.3

1.0

0.36

1.3

1.0

0.36

1.3

1.0

0.38

1.3

1.0

0.41

1.4

1.0

0.43

1.4

1.1

0.46

1.4

1.1

0.46

1.4

1.1

0.48

1.4

1.1

0.48

1.3

1.1

0.47

1.3

1.1

0.44

1.3

1.1

0.44

1.3

1.1

0.44

1.3

1.1

0.44

1.5

1.1

0.44

1.6

1.1

0.44

1.8

1.1

0.47

2.0

1.1

0.47

Now

2.1

1.1

0.47

Swipe the forecast to see later hours

Godrevy Forecast Summary

Hog Says

A well-aligned WNW swell brings low incoming swell energy to Godrevy with 4.9–8.2-second periods. Cross-onshore winds favour mixed to messy conditions through the day; the directional swell signal fades from 1.60 kW/m to 0.97 kW/m.

Generated only from the hourly forecast values for this day.

2.2

1.1

0.47

2.3

1.1

0.47

2.4

1.6

0.85

2.4

2.1

1.22

2.4

2.6

1.51

2.4

2.6

1.59

2.4

2.7

1.67

2.3

2.7

1.77

2.3

2.6

1.58

2.3

2.5

1.45

2.3

1.28

2.4

2.2

1.15

2.4

2.1

1.02

2.3

2.0

0.9

2.2

1.8

0.89

2.1

1.6

0.8

2.0

1.3

0.66

1.8

1.5

0.79

1.8

1.6

0.89

1.7

1.04

1.7

0.99

1.6

0.91

1.6

0.87

1.7

1.5

0.83

Swipe the forecast to see later hours

Godrevy Forecast Summary

Hog Says

A well-aligned WNW swell brings minimal incoming swell energy to Godrevy with 7.3–9.3-second periods. Offshore winds favour clean conditions through the day; the directional swell signal fades from 0.53 kW/m to 0.40 kW/m.

Generated only from the hourly forecast values for this day.

1.7

1.5

0.79

1.6

1.5

0.75

1.6

1.4

0.72

1.5

1.4

0.68

1.4

0.65

1.3

0.61

1.3

0.58

1.2

1.3

0.55

1.2

0.52

1.2

0.51

1.2

0.48

1.2

0.45

1.2

0.45

1.2

1.1

0.42

1.1

0.4

1.1

0.39

1.0

1.1

0.37

1.0

0.36

1.0

0.35

1.0

0.34

1.0

1.1

0.5

1.0

1.3

0.72

1.0

1.4

0.96

1.1

1.6

1.18

Swipe the forecast to see later hours

Godrevy Forecast Summary

Hog Says

A well-aligned W swell brings moderate incoming swell energy to Godrevy with 9.2–10.2-second periods. Offshore winds favour clean conditions through the day.

Generated only from the hourly forecast values for this day.

1.2

1.7

1.36

1.3

1.9

1.62

1.3

2.0

1.75

1.4

2.0

1.83

1.4

2.1

1.97

1.4

2.2

2.07

1.5

2.3

2.24

1.5

2.4

2.34

1.6

2.4

2.36

1.7

2.4

2.39

1.8

2.5

2.41

1.9

2.5

2.44

2.1

2.5

2.42

2.1

2.5

2.45

2.2

2.6

2.49

2.2

2.6

2.47

2.2

2.6

2.51

2.1

2.6

2.47

2.1

2.6

2.36

2.1

2.6

2.31

2.1

2.6

2.3

2.2

2.6

2.35

2.2

2.6

2.34

2.4

2.6

2.34

Swipe the forecast to see later hours

Godrevy Forecast Summary

Hog Says

A well-aligned W swell brings strong incoming swell energy to Godrevy with 9.5–10.5-second periods. Conditions should be cleaner early with cross-offshore winds, becoming messy later as winds turn onshore; the directional swell signal builds from 2.68 kW/m to 4.36 kW/m.

Generated only from the hourly forecast values for this day.

2.5

2.6

2.41

2.6

2.42

2.7

2.6

2.28

2.6

2.5

2.14

2.6

2.4

2.01

2.5

2.4

2.03

2.4

1.99

2.5

2.4

2.0

2.5

2.7

2.66

2.5

2.9

3.37

2.6

3.1

4.28

2.7

3.2

4.34

2.9

3.2

4.49

3.0

3.3

4.54

3.1

3.3

4.59

3.0

3.3

4.54

2.9

3.3

4.58

2.8

3.3

4.48

2.7

3.3

4.46

2.6

3.3

4.36

2.6

3.2

4.26

2.6

3.2

4.16

2.6

3.2

4.06

2.6

3.1

3.88

Swipe the forecast to see later hours

Godrevy Forecast Summary

Hog Says

A well-aligned W swell brings moderate incoming swell energy to Godrevy with 8.5–9.1-second periods. Onshore winds favour messy conditions through the day; the directional swell signal fades from 3.29 kW/m to 2.27 kW/m.

Generated only from the hourly forecast values for this day.

2.7

3.1

3.79

2.8

3.0

3.61

3.1

3.7

3.1

3.7

3.1

3.79

3.0

3.1

3.66

2.9

3.0

3.47

2.9

3.0

3.35

2.8

2.9

3.27

2.8

2.9

3.26

2.7

2.9

3.18

2.7

2.9

3.19

2.7

2.9

3.12

2.6

2.9

3.12

2.6

2.9

3.12

2.5

2.8

3.05

2.5

2.8

3.05

2.4

2.7

2.72

2.4

2.6

2.48

2.3

2.5

2.19

2.3

2.4

2.12

2.4

2.0

2.4

2.3

1.93

2.6

2.3

1.87

Swipe the forecast to see later hours

Godrevy Forecast Summary

Hog Says

A well-aligned W swell brings low incoming swell energy to Godrevy with 7.4–8-second periods. Cross-onshore winds favour mixed to messy conditions through the day; the directional swell signal fades from 1.28 kW/m to 0.99 kW/m.

Generated only from the hourly forecast values for this day.

2.8

2.2

1.75

3.0

2.2

1.69

2.8

2.2

1.64

2.9

2.1

1.58

3.0

2.1

1.52

3.0

2.1

1.46

3.1

2.0

1.4

3.1

2.0

1.34

3.1

2.0

1.28

3.0

1.9

1.23

3.0

1.9

1.18

2.9

1.9

1.13

2.9

1.8

1.08

2.8

1.8

1.04

2.8

1.8

1.03

2.8

1.8

1.03

2.8

1.8

1.03

2.8

1.8

1.02

2.8

1.8

1.01

2.8

1.8

1.0

2.7

1.8

0.96

2.7

1.7

0.89

2.6

1.7

0.85

2.5

1.6

0.82

Swipe the forecast to see later hours

kW/m means kilowatts of wave power per metre of wave crest. Imagine a line drawn along the crest of an incoming wave. A reading of 20 kW/m means each metre of that line carries about 20 kilowatts of power towards the coast.

In deep water, wave power can be estimated with this formula:

P is approximately 0.49 times significant wave height squared times wave energy period.

P is power in kW/m, H_s is significant wave height in metres, and T_e is wave energy period in seconds.

Example deep-water wave power
Height	Period	Power	Conditions
0.5 m	6 s	0.7 kW/m	Very small
1 m	8 s	3.9 kW/m	Small swell
2 m	10 s	19.6 kW/m	Solid swell
3 m	12 s	52.9 kW/m	Powerful swell

Wave height is squared, so doubling the height produces four times the power when the period stays the same. Long-period swell is also more powerful than short-period wind chop of the same height.

Across 100 metres of wave crest, 20 kW/m represents roughly 2 MW of passing wave power. It does not mean all of that power reaches the beach or could be captured: refraction, seabed friction and breaking reduce it.

On this forecast, the displayed value is a shore-directed proxy. It also accounts for swell direction, so it describes the energy aimed towards Godrevy rather than predicting breaking wave height.

North Atlantic wave height & period forecastsgenerated by SurfHog from public NOAA/NCEP GFS Wave and ECMWF IFS-WAM data

Compare significant wave height and wave period across the North Atlantic. Moving arrows show wave direction and the forecast blends smoothly between each three-hour step. ECMWF data is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

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UK primary swell height & period forecastgenerated by SurfHog from public Met Office NWS Wave data

A higher-resolution view of primary swell around the UK and nearby waters, downsampled from the Met Office 1.5 km model. Contains Met Office data licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; transformed by SurfHog.

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Why show three wave models?

No single wave model is always right. ECMWF is global, not Europe-only, but its published verification reports a long-term lead over other centres for significant wave height and peak-period scores. GFS Wave is a separate global system that forecasts multiple swell components, making it useful for following swell generated by distant Atlantic storms and for an independent comparison with ECMWF.

Around the UK, the 1.5 km UKMO NWS model uses regional bathymetry and coastal masking, refines its grid near coasts and in water shallower than 40 m, and includes bottom friction and depth-induced breaking. This adds shelf-sea detail the global charts do not resolve at the same scale; when the models differ, treat the forecast with more caution.

North Atlantic weather, 3 day atmospheric pressure charts

Courtesy of the UK Met Office

Isobars join places with equal atmospheric pressure. Tighter spacing generally indicates stronger winds; H marks high pressure and L marks low pressure. These image charts do not provide individual pressure values as text.

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.pressure-charts-client { display: none; } Pressure charts are unavailable because JavaScript is disabled in your browser.

Godrevy Forecast Summary

Godrevy Forecast Summary

Godrevy Forecast Summary

Godrevy Forecast Summary

Godrevy Forecast Summary

Godrevy Forecast Summary

Godrevy Forecast Summary

North Atlantic wave height & period forecastsgenerated by SurfHog from public NOAA/NCEP GFS Wave and ECMWF IFS-WAM data

UK primary swell height & period forecastgenerated by SurfHog from public Met Office NWS Wave data

Why show three wave models?

North Atlantic weather, 3 day atmospheric pressure charts

Cornwall, UK swell forecasts