Shoreham Beach

Shoreham has been a major location for the past 20 years and can boast some formidable locals - from the Baker Bros, Nick & Ant through to Danny Seales!

Both windsurfing and kitesurfing take place along the whole of the beach at various sites, though the most popular is at wide water, though at the time of writing, the new rock sea defenses have just been completed and it's not known how these will affect the sailing / kiting here.

Shoreham is well served with local shops etc, and Surfladle is one of the best shops in the area for both windsurfing & kitesurfing equipment - a real bonus if you've traveled down and broken some kit or left it at home - at least you can get back out on the water!

Launching at high tide can damage the bank balance, and on big spring tides many locals choose to sail at Worthing - or a while back if it was blowing 60mph+ you could see windsurfers blasting on the river alongside the airport!

Like Worthing to the West and Hove to the East, 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.

A major landmark....but a couple of miles
from the main sailing area of Shoreham!

Shoreham Green, used for quite a few events...and home to the Sussex Kitesurfing Center

One of the new rock defenses

Anything from the North West, 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!

The standard of both windsurfing & kiting along Shoreham beach is higher than average, with many people choosing to live close to the beach - so even during mid week, if the conditions are good you'll find people out.

You will not find major problems with currents, though at spring tides there tends to be more of a rip in the shallows - unlike Worthing, 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!

Not too sure yet how these will affect launching etc