- Shallow - Chop - Small Wave (< 1m) - Medium Wave (1-3m) - Big Wave (> 3m)
Hazards:
- Swimmers - Currents - Wave Breakers / Groynes
Quality:
- Clean
Best Tide:
- Low Tide
Clean water. The water is shallow for 200m out to sea. The tide comes in very quickly, so care needs to be taken with kit, and there are often sand islands which form and disappear accordingly. Lagoons of flat water appear behind the sand bars at certain tide states. Camber can have waves when windy. Slight easterly long shore drift current that can be felt during westerly winds, otherwise no strong currents at all apart from at very high tide. Please park in the pebble car park at the Eastern end of the beach, this is the kite zone. Groynes dangerous on high tides, avoid 2.5 hours either side of high tide.
Clean golden sands. Here you will find the only sand dunes in Southeast England. On low tide the beach is very wide, so you have to walk for about 200m to the water line. Plenty of launch space, plenty of room for buggies, very busy in summer, so advisory to go to the far ends away from the car park and people. The beach itself is huge, there is plenty of space. At the top of the beach there is about 30m of soft sand to rig gear up, before a small belt of rounded stones, then more compacted sand which gradually gets damper until you reach the sea. There are also many paths over the dunes for access. The dunes also have grass on them, for laying out wet gear.
Typical British weather. Shorty in the summer, 6mm steamer in winter. Off-season possible. The water temperature isn't too bad due to the depth of the water, it stays above about 14°C for nearly all of the year. However, the air temperature can get very cold at points during the winter, down to minus numbers at points with wind chill.
- January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December
Wind Type:
- Thermal Winds
Best Direction:
- SE - SSE - S - SSW - SW
Main Direction:
- SW
Sideonshore to onshore. The day usually starts with a very light offshore breeze, which turns as it gets stronger, normally at about 13:00. It then blows until about 18:00. Sailable in southerly wind directions, SE-S-SW all good. There is wind for (on average) 4 days a week all year round.
Trains run from Ashford International to Rye every hour at 24 minutes past. It is then a 1/2 hour walk to Camber sands. Trains return at 48 minutes past the hour from Rye. Trains come from London to Ashford very often. It is signposted from Ashford, which is accessible by the M26/M20, A20 or M2. Buses run from Dover, Folkestone, Hythe, Camber, Rye, allowing you to get off the boat at Dover from the continent easily. You can park in the pebble car park which is free.
08-04-06 Unknown: hi, I kited at camber last may, even on a high spring it was possible to land and launch. I went straight off the holiday park, and on my 3rd session got pulled off the beach by some beach patrol person, driving around in a landy, to stop me being a hazard to the other beach users....ie no-one. apart from the local fascists was great, flattish, well, everything is compared to hove shoredump
04-05-28 Graeme Fuller: There is unfortunately a kite ban now at Camber, which is probably just as well if folk went there believing the description.
Despite what the author may have seen, Camber can and does get quite big, and on an incoming tide there is quite a severe downwind/tide rip that will seriously affect even an early intermediate. Kitesurfing has now been re-sited to Jurys Gap, which is less suitable because of the groynes and a sunken wreck.
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