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Bigbury-on-Sea

Sand either side of the Burgh Island causeway, best in a north-westerly — and a genuinely dangerous ebb tide.

Bigbury Bay · DevonDirections

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● Spot · shaded: the wind directions that work here. It is not a riding area or a permitted kite zone. Two fingers to move the map.

Location & launch

Know before you go.

Launch
Sand below the car park, with Burgh Island and its tidal causeway to the west.
Wind
SE · SSE · S · SSW · SW · WSW · W · WNW · NW winds work here.
Tide
Avoid high water — there is very little sand left. Never ride the estuary on an outgoing tide.

The shaded area shows the wind directions recorded as working here. It is not a permitted kite zone or a safe launch boundary. Check local signs.

Local rules, hazards & spot guide

Need to know

The things that catch people out here.

  • Never ride the estuary channel on an outgoing tide. It is the single most dangerous thing about this bay.
  • Easterlies funnel down the Avon valley and can be ten knots stronger than forecast, especially when the sun is out. The local club calls them too gusty to kite.
  • At high water there is barely any sand. Mid to low is the window.
  • Bantham on the eastern side of the bay is the quieter launch and where locals often go instead.

Conditions

NESW
  • Best
  • Works
  • Offshore
Works in
SE, SSE, S, SSW, SW, WSW, W, WNW, NW
Best in
NW
Offshore (careful)
N, NNE, NE, ENE, E, NNW
Wind quality
gusty
Water
Waves
Depth
mixed
Best tide
Low to mid
Spring range
4.9 m

Easterlies funnel down the Avon valley and can strengthen by up to ten knots, particularly on a sunny day.

Tide rule

Avoid high water — there is very little sand left. Never ride the estuary on an outgoing tide. The Avon estuary running out through the bay is dangerous on the ebb.

Sea breeze · May–Aug

Valley funnelling rather than a classic sea breeze — the easterly accelerates down the Avon valley when the land heats.

Beginner
Not suitable
Intermediate
Good
Advanced
Ideal

Hazards

Most serious first. The level is in words as well as colour.

  • high

    current The Avon estuary ebbs out through the middle of the bay. This is a genuinely dangerous place to be caught on an outgoing tide.

  • high

    rocks Burgh Island and its rocky causeway on the western side; reef at both ends of the bay.

  • medium

    tidal cutoff The Burgh Island causeway floods and cuts the island off twice a day.

Access & rules

Launch
Sand below the car park, with Burgh Island and its tidal causeway to the west.
Permit
Not required
Insurance
Third-party liability expected
Tuition
Permitted
Facilities
toilets, cafe, pub

Parking

  • Bigbury-on-Sea car park

    paid

Seasonal restrictions

  • Jun–Aug

    RNLI bathing zones in force in peak season.

Safety

Who is around if it goes wrong. None of it makes the water safe.

Lifeguards
Seasonal RNLI cover.
RNLI
Salcombe RNLI
Nearest A&E
Derriford Hospital, Plymouth (~45 min)
Water quality
Designated bathing water — excellent

The spot

Bigbury sits at the western end of a bay that produces waves peeling almost eight hundred metres across from Bantham. The local club rates a north-westerly best, ridden on the island side of the spit, with west round to south-east usable from the beach below the village. Easterlies are famous with windsurfers for port-tack waves, but they accelerate down the Avon valley, often arriving ten knots stronger than forecast, and the club calls them too gusty to kite.

The Avon estuary is also the danger. It runs out through the middle of the bay and on an ebb tide it is a serious hazard — this is not a place to be caught drifting. At high water there is almost no sand left, so mid to low tide is the window. Many locals launch at Bantham on the eastern side instead, where it is quieter and the water is less crowded.

Links & local

Clubs, forums & groups

Nearby alternatives

Other launches around Bigbury Bay, with different conditions.

  • Bantham

    The quieter side of Bigbury Bay's wave field.

Sources

Where this record came from, and how confident we are in it.

Confidence: high · 3 independent sources · status published · updated 2026-09-07

Verify locally. Coordinates 50.2827, -3.8963. Conditions, access arrangements and beach rules change; check them on the day before you rely on anything on this page.