Spots › Kent

Minnis Bay

One of the most learner-friendly spots in the south-east: wide, gently-shelving sandy bay facing north. Best in NW, NNW, N, NNE, and NE. No kiting within 2.5 hours either side of high water — effectively no usable beach then; target the falling tide or low water. Flat to small chop. Free street parking as well as a paid car park. Schools: Tide Watersports, Kite Pirates.

ParkingLaunch area🅿️ The Parade — free on-street parking🚻 Public toilets (by the paid car park)☕ Minnis Bay Bar & Brasserie + Bay Café (between car park and sea)🏄 Tide Watersports — kite school (operates from the car park)🏄 Kite Pirates kite school (operates from the car park)➤Today's wind direction (W ~24 kt at low tide ~18:04 (window 15:04–16:43 BST)) 🚗 Directions • Open in Google Maps: Parking • Launch area • The Parade — free on-street parking • Public toilets (by the paid car park) • Minnis Bay Bar & Brasserie + Bay Café (between car park and sea) • Tide Watersports — kite school (operates from the car park) • Kite Pirates kite school (operates from the car park)
Region
Kent
Skill level
Beginner-friendly when tide is right
Best tide window
Falling to low tide. NO KITING 2.5 h either side of HW — no usable beach.
Bathing water
The bathing water at Minnis Bay, Birchington is rated Excellent. (EA)
Windguru
Windguru forecast →
Tide station
Whitstable Approaches
Tide data
UKHO Admiralty — 7-day coverage (BST)
Wind data
Public-model blend: Met Office UKV 2km (direct), Met Office Global 10km (direct), AROME-FR, IFS-HRES, ICON, GFS (via Open-Meteo) and MET Norway, averaged across every model that covers each hour, out to day 7; temperature from the Met Office feeds
Last updated
Page rebuilt: 25 October 2026 16:20 GMT
Forecast data: 25 October 2026 15:30 GMT
Tide data: 25 October 2026 16:20 GMT
📏 Tide heights — next 7 days (chart datum at Whitstable Approaches)
Sun 25LW 05:40 1.1m · HW 11:35 5.2m · LW 18:05 0.7m
Mon 26HW 00:05 5.3m · LW 06:20 0.9m · HW 12:10 5.4m · LW 18:40 0.6m
Tue 27HW 00:40 5.3m · LW 07:05 0.8m · HW 12:55 5.5m · LW 19:20 0.6m
Wed 28HW 01:20 5.3m · LW 07:50 0.8m · HW 13:35 5.5m · LW 20:00 0.7m
Thu 29HW 02:00 5.3m · LW 08:25 0.7m · HW 14:20 5.5m · LW 20:35 0.8m
Fri 30HW 02:40 5.2m · LW 09:10 0.8m · HW 15:10 5.4m · LW 21:15 1.0m
Sat 31HW 03:25 5.0m · LW 09:55 0.8m · HW 16:00 5.2m · LW 22:05 1.3m
No measured beach/groyne height for this spot yet — log a beach report to add one.
🧭 Wind directions
N: goodNNE: goodNE: bestENE: bestE: excludedESE: excludedSE: no_goSSE: no_goS: no_goSSW: no_goSW: no_goWSW: no_goW: excludedWNW: okNW: bestNNW: bestNESW
Minnis Bay, Birchington, faces ~N/NNE. Onshore NW–NE; HARD NO around high water (no beach). S winds are offshore.
green = works (brightest = side-on) · blue = cross-shore · orange = side-off / unproven (care) · red = offshore, never · grey = excluded locally

Next 7 days at Minnis BayNo kiteable window shows at Minnis Bay in the next 7 days — wrong direction or too light throughout. AROME and UKV 2km agree (within ~3 kt) over the next 60 h — confidence good (lead model here: UKV 2km).

Windguru forecast

7-day forecast

Wind scale: <10 10–11 12–13 14–15 16–19 20–29 30+ kt ⚠

Public-model blend, for the full 7 days: The Met Office UKV 2km and Global 10km runs are read directly from the Met Office open-data feeds; AROME-FR 1.3km, IFS-HRES 9km, ICON and GFS come via Open-Meteo, plus MET Norway. Direction is a circular mean; gusts average only the models that publish an hourly-maximum gust. These numbers are raw model output with no coastal correction, so in the same weather they can read a little lighter than a coastally-corrected forecast — treat them as a floor rather than a ceiling. Temperature is from the Met Office runs (interpolated between 3-hourly steps on later days). No sea-state data is available. Tides from UKHO Admiralty (BST, 7-day window). The Windguru widget above is the unmodified Windguru forecast and is a useful cross-check.

Sun 25 Oct

Coef 96 spring LW 05:40 1.1m HW 11:35 5.2m LW 18:05 0.7m
Not kiteable today — wind from W. Peak 21 kt from W is not a working direction at Minnis Bay. Working directions here: NW / NNW / N / NNE / NE.
Confidence: the ensemble disagrees — over 95% chance of 12 kt+ despite the forecast — worth watching · Met Office ensemble, next 54 h
Time
Wind
Gust
Dir
Cloud
Temp
17:00
21 kt
33 kt
→ W
4%
13°C
18:00
18 kt
29 kt
→ W
4%
12°C
19:00
18 kt
26 kt
→ WSW
2%
12°C
20:00
16 kt
25 kt
→ WSW
2%
11°C
21:00
16 kt
25 kt
↗ WSW
30%
10°C

Mon 26 Oct

Coef 102 spring HW 00:05 5.3m LW 06:20 0.9m HW 12:10 5.4m LW 18:40 0.6m
Not kiteable today — wind from SSW. Peak 18 kt from SSW is offshore (blows straight out to sea) at Minnis Bay. Working directions here: NW / NNW / N / NNE / NE.
Time
Wind
Gust
Dir
Cloud
Temp
06:00
10 kt
17 kt
↗ SSW
99%
11°C
09:00
15 kt
25 kt
↗ SSW
100%
12°C
12:00
19 kt
31 kt
↑ SSW
100%
13°C
15:00
18 kt
30 kt
↗ SSW
94%
15°C
18:00
16 kt
27 kt
↗ SW
82%
16°C
21:00
16 kt
25 kt
↗ SSW
83%
16°C

Tue 27 Oct

Coef 105 spring HW 00:40 5.3m LW 07:05 0.8m HW 12:55 5.5m LW 19:20 0.6m
Not kiteable today — wind from WSW. Peak 11 kt from WSW is cross-offshore (side-off) at Minnis Bay. Working directions here: NW / NNW / N / NNE / NE.
Time
Wind
Gust
Dir
Cloud
Temp
06:00
22 kt
36 kt
↑ SSW
94%
16°C
09:00
20 kt
35 kt
↗ SW
100%
15°C
12:00
15 kt
25 kt
↗ WSW
78%
15°C
15:00
12 kt
22 kt
→ WSW
28%
15°C
18:00
11 kt
16 kt
↗ WSW
1%
14°C
21:00
11 kt
16 kt
→ WSW
—
13°C

Wed 28 Oct

Coef 104 spring HW 01:20 5.3m LW 07:50 0.8m HW 13:35 5.5m LW 20:00 0.7m
Sub-kiteable — peak only 7 kt. Peak wind only 7 kt from WSW in the tide window. Below the kiteable threshold for almost every rider.
Time
Wind
Gust
Dir
Cloud
Temp
06:00
9 kt
15 kt
↗ WSW
31%
—
09:00
10 kt
17 kt
↗ WSW
42%
—
12:00
11 kt
18 kt
↗ WSW
42%
—
15:00
8 kt
16 kt
↗ WSW
50%
—
18:00
7 kt
10 kt
↗ SW
34%
—
21:00
7 kt
10 kt
↗ SW
33%
—

Thu 29 Oct

Coef 101 spring HW 02:00 5.3m LW 08:25 0.7m HW 14:20 5.5m LW 20:35 0.8m
Sub-kiteable — peak only 6 kt. Peak wind only 6 kt from SE in the tide window. Below the kiteable threshold for almost every rider.
Time
Wind
Gust
Dir
Cloud
Temp
06:00
3 kt
6 kt
↑ SSW
49%
—
09:00
3 kt
7 kt
↑ S
61%
—
12:00
4 kt
8 kt
↖ SE
62%
—
15:00
4 kt
9 kt
↖ SE
56%
—
18:00
5 kt
10 kt
↖ SE
49%
—
21:00
6 kt
10 kt
↖ SE
50%
—

Fri 30 Oct

Coef 95 spring HW 02:40 5.2m LW 09:10 0.8m HW 15:10 5.4m LW 21:15 1.0m
Sub-kiteable — peak only 8 kt. Peak wind only 8 kt from SSE in the tide window. Below the kiteable threshold for almost every rider.
Time
Wind
Gust
Dir
Cloud
Temp
06:00
6 kt
10 kt
↖ SE
77%
—
09:00
6 kt
11 kt
↖ SSE
58%
—
12:00
6 kt
11 kt
↑ SSE
57%
—
15:00
5 kt
11 kt
↑ SSE
78%
—
18:00
5 kt
10 kt
↑ SSE
90%
—
21:00
4 kt
9 kt
↑ S
76%
—

Sat 31 Oct

Coef 85 big HW 03:25 5.0m LW 09:55 0.8m HW 16:00 5.2m LW 22:05 1.3m
Sub-kiteable — peak only 9 kt. Peak wind only 9 kt from SSW in the tide window. Below the kiteable threshold for almost every rider.
Time
Wind
Gust
Dir
Cloud
Temp
06:00
6 kt
12 kt
↗ SW
84%
—
09:00
8 kt
13 kt
↗ SW
84%
—
12:00
8 kt
14 kt
→ W
87%
—
15:00
7 kt
15 kt
↘ NNW
84%
—
18:00
9 kt
15 kt
↓ NNW
75%
—
21:00
8 kt
15 kt
↘ NNW
65%
—
Tide times: UKHO Admiralty predictions via Admiralty Tidal API. Times in BST, rounded to nearest 5 min. Wind: public-model blend — Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (CC-BY 4.0; UKMO substream CC-BY-SA 4.0). Met Office UKV 2km and Global 10km via the Met Office AWS Open Data buckets (CC BY-SA 4.0, © Crown copyright). Models: Met Office, ECMWF, NOAA, DWD, Meteo-France. Data from MET Norway (CC-BY 4.0 / NLOD 2.0). Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
The wind and temperature figures on this page are a derivative of Met Office open data (UKV 2km and Global 10km via the Met Office AWS Open Data programme, and the UKMO substream of Open-Meteo), and are therefore published under CC BY-SA 4.0. © Crown copyright, Met Office. Model credits: Met Office, ECMWF, NOAA, DWD, Météo-France. Data from MET Norway; weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Forecast accuracy — forecast vs reality (archive)

Pick a past day to compare three things: the forecast we published (frozen before each hour, never revised afterwards), the wind that actually happened (Open-Meteo reanalysis, hours 05:00–21:00 UK), and what the live weather stations near the spot actually recorded (amber, from 2 Aug 2026). You can go right up to today — today shows the forecast and the live stations; the reanalysis for today lands tomorrow morning.

Full wind analysis — all spots →

Important: Forecasts are model-derived and may change. Always verify on Windguru and check local tide tables before you go. LKSA accepts no liability for decisions made based on this forecast.