Candás — local surf knowledge

The wave

Candás is a beach that works the other way round from the rest: it needs a powerful swell to get going, so as a rule it is only surfed when there is a storm. Its season runs from October to March.

It needs real swell. About 2 m at least.
It has no size limit. With more swell it keeps working.
The tide rules. It is only surfed from low to mid tide.

Do not expect picture-postcard sessions: when there is swell for Candás it usually comes with a storm, and the wind is rarely fully on your side.

Size

Heights are given on the scale of the San Lorenzo page, which is the reference used to compare the beaches in the area. Candás has its own forecast point, which shows almost the same as San Lorenzo's, so the numbers read almost directly.

Minimum: about 2 m. With a long period, 14 s, and a north-west swell it can just about work with 1.8–1.9 m.
Its sweet spot: from 2.5 m upwards.
Limit: none. What changes with size is who it is for: from 2.9 m, beginners need to take care.

Period

Best: 12 to 14 s.
A longer period does not hurt it. Unlike other beaches, it does not get worse with 16 s or more.

Swell direction

The good one: from 297° to 329°, a north-west swell with a little north in it.
Outside that range less swell reaches it and it needs more size for the same result.

Wind

Ideal: the offshore, from 204° to 280° (south-west to west). It is the wind that gives it the best scores.
Other winds affect it little, less than the other beaches: it is quite sheltered, so a bit of cross-shore is hardly noticeable.

Tide

This is what conditions Candás the most.

It is surfed from low to mid tide. Best at low tide.
From mid tide upwards, no. There are rocks along the shore, and from mid to high tide accidents can happen.
On neap tides it loses a lot. The tide never drops all the way and stays stuck near mid tide: you can surf a little even close to high tide, but the beach never reaches its best.

How it compares with the others

It starts where the others stop. Xivares, also in Carreño, needs a big swell but gets out of hand above 2.1 m; Candás gets going at around 2 m and has no ceiling. They are never good at the same hour: one has too much or too little swell, and on top of that they want opposite tides (Xivares, mid to high).
It is good on few days a year, around thirty, almost all of them from December to March.

In other words: this is the beach for stormy days when the rest of the central coast has too much swell. When the forecast shows more than 2 m from the north-west and the tide is from mid down, it is the one to look at.