Grading system
- Green means not impressive for spectators, no use for ww paddlers, but suitable for an introductory moving water training or fun in sea kayaks and canoes
- Blue means good fun in sea kayaks, good for ww training but unlikely to produce a good playboat wave.
- Red should be excellent in sea kayaks and should* provide a playboat wave. Good for spectators
- Black entries should be good as they combine a big range with low tides, making the wave more likely to provide good sport for play boaters.
*You should check the weather forecast as well. High pressure results in better waves because the depth will be less. Low pressure results in washed out conditions.
Please also note that times are now BST where appropriate. Information about the source of our tidal predictions can be found here
Top tips
- If you are a playboater wanting breaking waves on the ebb tide, it’s the range that matters, together with how low the low tide is. Even big ranges with low tide levels above 0.7 metres might be disappointing. Lows below 0.5 metres are probably going to be good.
- If you are a sea paddler or canoeist wanting to paddle the flood tide, it’s just the height of the high tide that matters.
- The good flood tides tend to happen in the afternoon or evening, sunset times are provided in the table so you can check if it’s light and the tide graph has daylight and twilight hours highlighted.
About the data table
The table has data for all tides, ebb and flood, colour coded for how exciting/hairy/spectacular they are going to be.
This means that the table is vast, however we do it like this so that sea kayakers, canoeists, sailors and anglers as well as play-boaters can search the table and see dates that will suit their purposes.
This might make it harder work for play boaters to find the info they need – sorry! Just look for the red and black boxes.
About the tidal graphs
The graph is a visual indication of what the tide height is doing, along with when the falls will be running and how good they might be. Click the buttons for information about the ebb and flood tides, the lighter bar indicates the start of the flow and the darker portion the best times.
For the Ebb tide the height of the coloured bars indicate the tidal range, for Flood tides they indicate the height.
We are continuing to develop the calculations and criteria. Please help, send us feedback on how the conditions you experience compare with our predictions. info@fallsoflora.info