DEVON GUIDE P2
SAUNTON SANDS To the North of Westward Ho! By car, Go through Braunton and head towards Croyde, Saunton Sands is on the left hand side off the coast road. Mid sized car park with toilets, cafe, take away kiosk, Surf shop, surf schools and plenty of surfers! Car park is between £2.50 and £6.00 depending on the time of year and time of day, this car park gets very busy in the summer.
Get changed in the car park and take kite in bag with pump onto the beach. You have to walk down passed the white rock which is about 200 m South down the beach and kit up on the beach. You MUST keep away from other beach users and surfers as kitesurfing has been banned here before by Christie Estates, if any trouble they will ban it again quickly. Due to this the locals will get very annoyed if anyone does not follow the rules (even if in a group that should had known better in a mini bus a few weeks ago from a visiting school!!). We need access here and won't let idiots ruin it! Kitesurfing is still banned here throughout the months of July and August with no exceptions.
You can kite here all states of the tide but on spring tide high water you will have very little sand left so head much further down the beach well away from walkers. Similar to Westward Ho! best wind directions are SW - NW. S is better here than the Ho! as its less lumpy but N gets a bit lumpy due to disrupted wind over the headland. The surf is similar to the Ho! but the waves hold for longer, run slightly cleaner and generally have a little more power. There is a really nice right comming off the rocks to the N of the beach but is usually full of surfers. DO NOT clash with the surfers as these draw the revenue for this beach and if problems, we get banned! As Saunton is a premier surf spot for long boards, during weekends and summer you can have up to 500 surfers in (now I know why I took up kitesurfing! 20 years ago I used to surf Saunton with about 10 other people in the water!). Head S towards the estury and the surfers thin out to only a few beginners.
Good long beach, all sand bottom with reef to the N (visable so keep clear!). Bideford bar to the S, if going here watch for very strong currents and peaky waves. Friendly locals if you show respect to others but tons of surfers. Similar to Westward Ho! with a bit better surf, more facilities but more set up for surfing than kitesurfing. All land based kiting (buggies and boards) is banned from this beach.
