Climping Beach
Climping is a nice quiet spot, an easy to get
to. There even used to be a club and hire center there, though
we think that's no longer the case. Why one should choose Climping
over Littlehampton I'm not to sure, it's probably more to do with
being well away from the main road, quite a wide expanse of grass
to rig up on and good car parking - that said the car park only
opens up form March to October.
Climping is well known for its "nature" !!
|
Looking East towards LIttlehampton from Climping with the superstructure of the
entrance to Littlehampton visible. |
I believe Climping has its own band of followers,
many coming down from London - a lot of people have never heard of
it. And like Bognor and Worthing the conditions are quite similar,
and can differ from one day to the next depending on the height and
state of the tides as well as wind direction - and without stating
the obvious wind speed once you arrive there. |
Like Worthing to the East and Bognor to the West, it benefits from local
sea breezes from May through to September - the rest of the year keep
an eye on the forecasts, the map below will give you a good idea of what
winds are suitable. 
| Anything from the WNW, though that can be gusty through to ENE
will work, though in the winter and early spring anything with East
in them should have a health warning as quite a considerable wind
chill goes with them.
Best conditions are a westerly after a couple of days of strong
South Westerlies - that will provide good down the line riding
if the swell is at all decent.
The prevailing wind is from the SW, and even though in the summer
the wind might start off in the NE with the local sea breeze kicking
you'll find that the wind will swing round to the SW and blow a
steady F5+ - though BE CAREFUL if sailing late on a summers evening,
as the sea breeze will die as quickly as it kicks in, plus it will
swing round offshore to the NW, leaving you with a bit of a swim,
or worse still if you get stuck out at sea!
The first signs of the sea breeze dying are pretty obvious, with
the wind dropping off, though some persistent "gits" often
choose to ignore this, the wind will also start backing round to
the west, and finally the NW and drop completely - you have been
warned!
You don't want to get caught up in this with your kit
The River Arun goes out to sea with strong currents!
|
Looking towards the West and all those groynes
Up near the Sand dunes about a mile from Climping
You will not find major problems with currents, though at spring
tides there tends to be more of a rip in the shallows - low tide
is good as the tide does not go out to far, leaving plenty of sand
and shallow water providing plenty of small ramps that are either
wind or swell driven.
As in all South Coast shingle locations high tides can be rather
more demanding for launching, again depending on the height of the
tides on any given day, wooden break waters and rock groynes can
make a mess of most equipment and large "dumpers" at high
tide can make launching always interesting!
The car park at Climping
|
Should you have a problem out at sea there's usually plenty of craft
out at sea, and if you have to dump your kit and swim, there's a good
chance it will get washed in further down the coast - but always advise
the Coastguard if you abandoned any kit out at sea!
A few other points, depending on the wind direction you can go coastal
cruising, either East towards Worthing & beyond, or West to Bognor & Pagham!
Obviously give the harbour entrance a very wide berth, especially at
low tide as a lot of the superstructure is just below the water and is
not too forgiving on fins!
One last point if walking along the beach towards the sand dunes to
the East in search of "nature" you might get more than you
bargained for as the occasional nudist (tend to be males only) inhabits
this area, so if it's warm and sunny you could almost imagine you're
in Fuerteventura!
If you want to add your own comments see the link at the top of this
page.
Feb 2000
South Coast Beach Breaks
Hover over any red dot for details
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