Bantham

Sandy beach with rock pools.

Submitted by:
Airpowerd
Updated:
16th May 2004

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Bantham is a large fine sandy beach with many rockpools running from the mouth of the River Avon behind the marram covered sand dunes of Bantham, one of the most popular beaches in the district. It is situated in an area of great natural beauty with magnificient panoramic views across the River Avon to Burgh Island much used by surfers and windsurfers. It is one of the best surfing beaches on the south coast.

Lifeguards are on duty during the summer months. Therer are also dog restrictions in place.

The expansive sands are frequented by kite buggys at low tide - These shallow shelving sands make it a great place to kitesurfsurf and gives lovely shallow water to skim across when kitesurfing.

The only rule for kiters on land and water is to stay to the right of the RNLI beach flags for the swimmers. It is very important to be EXTRA CONSIDERATE on this beach. Set up far away from crowds in the big open spaces. At high tide when its busy, you may have to avoid kiting altogether if the beach is busy.

The lifeguards want to see at least a 50meter distance around swimmers and surfers - this may mean that there just isn't the room to surf. Also be sure to have 3rd party insurance up to date or you cant kitesurf here. (www.kitesurfing.org for BKSA insurance cover £25.00 a year)

Wind surfers tend to avoid it, probably because of the long walk to the water at low tide - but this very reason makes it ideal for kitesurfers.

First of all you have a large open space to practise with your kite, it tends not to get as busy or congested even in the height of summer - and although surfers where there first - kiters are generally accepted as co-"owners" of the spot thanks to its long history of traction power kiting.

Unfortunately there is a small window for kiting in a given wind direction - but it is the prevailing westerly wind.

Do be careful kitesurfing when the tide is going out - the water can disappear quite fast and the beach undulates leaving very shallow water out at sea, when further inshore it can be quite deep - potentially very dangerous when jumping.

Also when the tide is coming in, it rushes down the river, so if you are underpowered you'll be sucked into the black hole. But don't panic, just at the mouth of the river is a lovely beach area where you can land, pack up and walk back!

On the upside the shallow water provides a beautiful "skim board" effect giving extra lift and the impression of skating effortlessly across the surface. In addition the Sloop is a great village pub - really friendly and the car park isn't too expensive compared with Burgh which is extortianate.