Home All Beaches Fistral Beach
🇬🇧 Newquay, Cornwall

Fistral Beach Surf Report

Live conditions · Updated every 30 minutes · Always free

Last updated: 4:30 PM BST
6 /10
Good Conditions
Sunday, April 5, 2026

Good conditions. well overhead waves (8.7ft), glassy conditions, incoming tide. Solid surf for intermediate and above.

⏱ Best time to paddle out
5AM – 7AM
Score 6/10 · Good

Current Conditions

🌊
Wave Height
8.7ft
2.64m open ocean · 2.6m swell
Breaking waves typically 60–80% of this
📡
Swell Period
8.3s
Mixed swell
💨
Wind
Glassy
N · Perfect surface ✓
🌡️
Water Temp
61°F
16°C · 2/2mm or 3/2mm wetsuit
🌊
Current Tide
2ft
↑ Rising · MLLW
Best Window Today
5AM–7AM
Score 6/10 · Good

Today's Surf Timeline

Hourly surf score from 5am to 9pm. Taller bar = better conditions. Best window highlighted in teal.

5AM
6
13.6ft
6AM
6
13.1ft
7AM
6
12.6ft
8AM
6
12.1ft
9AM
6
11.5ft
10AM
6
11ft
11AM
5
10.6ft
12PM
5
10.1ft
1PM
6
9.7ft
2PM
6
9.4ft
3PM
6
9ft
4PM
6
8.7ft
5PM
6
8.4ft
6PM
6
8.1ft
7PM
6
7.8ft
8PM
6
7.5ft
9PM
6
7.3ft
Epic/Great   Good   Fair   Poor

Fistral Beach Surf Guide

Break type Beach Break
Skill level All levels
Best season September – March
Best swell NW to SW, 4–8 ft, 12+ second period
Best wind Offshore SE/E
Best tide Mid tide
Crowds Heavy summer, manageable October–April
Parking Fistral Beach Car Park — pay and display.

Fistral Beach is the undisputed capital of British surfing — a wide, exposed Atlantic-facing beach in Newquay, Cornwall that has hosted the Boardmasters Surf Festival for over 40 years. Facing directly into the Atlantic with no landmass between it and North America, Fistral captures groundswells generated by powerful North Atlantic low-pressure systems reliably from September through March.

Mid tide is the magic window at Fistral. At low tide waves tend to close out across a shallow sandbar, and high tide brings water right to the sea wall. Water temperatures range from 10°C in February to 17°C in August — a 5/4mm hooded wetsuit is essential from November through March.

Written & reviewed by

Adam Moore

Surf Journalist & Ocean Data Specialist

Adam Moore has been surfing coastlines from Cornwall to California for over 15 years. A former marine science graduate from the University of Exeter and contributing writer for several surf publications, Adam built SurfTidal to solve a simple problem: surf forecast tools designed for data scientists, not for surfers. He believes anyone heading to the beach deserves accurate, honest, plain-English conditions — free of charge. When he's not in the water, he's analysing swell models, testing forecast accuracy, and writing the beach guides you'll find across this site.