Pagham Sailing Club is a good call for beginner/intermediates at weekends and holidays as there is usually boat cover. If you become a member you get changing rooms and a bar for that refreshing drink after your sail. Next call Pagham Spit car park to the right of the sailing club, which is free and open from 8.30am to 8.00pm. A steep, shingle beach and really only short board territory when the swell is pumping. In SW cross shore W cross off, great for down the line winds the beach can produce smooth peeling and barrelling waves. For this to happen a depression in the Bay of Biscay will have been pushing swells up the English Channel for a few days. In E or NE, Pagham is a superb blasting area with cross-shore winds when it’s offshore at other beaches. In S it’s a jumping but not riding beach. The water flattens out at low tide, which is about the only time beginners will have a good time here. There’s plenty of parking, doesn’t get too busy even in summer but beware of the currents flowing into Pagham Harbour on a rising tide and also the groynes on the beach at high tide which start where the houses are. At high tide the steepness of the beach combined with big waves can make launching difficult but it’s still easier than a lot of the beaches in this area. You are not allowed to windsurf in the harbour, as it’s a wildlife conservation area, besides, it’s very muddy.