Surfing in Wales in June

Conditions in June

Water temp. : 15 °C
Wetsuit : 4/3 mm, boots advised

June is the quiet half of the year. The Atlantic storm track has gone north, the swells that reach the Bristol Channel are smaller and further apart, and Llangennith spends most of the month at waist height or under.

What replaces the surf is the length of the day. Light until half past nine, water at 15°C, and a peninsula that is genuinely beautiful when the weather allows it: three miles of sand at Rhossili with a shipwreck in it, and Swansea twenty minutes back for the evening.

For a weekend, that changes the maths in a way it does not in January. In winter you drive because the chart says so and everything else is incidental. In June you drive because the weekend is good, and the surf is one of four or five reasons rather than the only one.

Learning in June

For learning : Very good

Close to ideal. Small waves, the warmest water since last October, and every school on the peninsula running.

Where a beginner goes in June

These spots are reachable all year. What the month changes is the size of the waves, not the access.

For an experienced surfer

Surf : Good

Thin. Take the evenings, take a longboard, and keep an eye out for the rare June swell that catches everybody off guard.

How June compares

All twelve months, side by side

Where these figures come from

Air, rain and sunshine: WMO / NOAA 1991-2020 normals for Agadir Al Massira, a station some twenty kilometres inland and so a little warmer than the coast in summer. Swell, period and share of workable wind: Swell Archive and surf-forecast. Water temperature: seatemperature.org and weather-and-climate. Crowds and prices are an editorial judgement, not a measurement.