Paddleboarding in Pembrokeshire

Paddleboarding took over the Welsh coast in about five years, and Pembrokeshire has the geography for it: a deep natural harbour, a string of south-facing bays that stay flat when the Atlantic side is a mess, and estuaries that go a long way inland.

Dale is the obvious base. It sits on the Milford Haven waterway, which is sheltered by the whole Dale peninsula and stays paddleable when Newgale is unusable, and the village has been the county's watersports centre for decades. Dale beach itself is small and shallow, which makes it a good place to work out whether you can stand up. From there you can potter along the shore towards Mill Bay or across to Westdale if the conditions and your ability genuinely allow — that second one is open sea and not a beginner's trip.

On the south coast, Saundersfoot and Tenby are the easy options: harbours, hire, and long sandy beaches. Tenby North on a still morning before the day-trippers arrive, with Goscar Rock in the middle of it, is about as good as this gets. Stackpole Quay is a tiny National Trust harbour with a slipway, and paddling round the headland to Barafundle on a flat day is a genuinely memorable half hour. Newport Sands and the Nevern estuary behind it give sheltered water on the north coast, and Cwm-yr-Eglwys is a pocket-sized bay that suits a first go.

Inland, the Daugleddau — the wooded upper reaches of the waterway around Lawrenny and the pill creeks — is a different sort of paddle entirely: no swell, herons, oak woods coming down to the water, and the tide doing half the work if you time it. Go up on the flood and back on the ebb.

A session is usually two hours of hire or a taught hour and a half. Beginners spend the first twenty minutes on their knees and the rest standing badly. That is normal, and by the second outing it clicks.

Come in the morning. Wind almost always builds through the day in summer, and the difference between 8am and 2pm on the same beach can be the difference between a glassy paddle and a wrestling match. Late May to September is the comfortable window, though the water is warmest in late August and September.

What catches people out is offshore wind, and it deserves repeating because it is how paddleboarders end up on the lifeboat news. Wind blowing from land to sea makes the water at the beach look perfect. Twenty minutes later you are half a mile out and cannot paddle back into it. Learn to check wind direction against the beach's aspect before you leave the car, and if it is offshore, go somewhere else or go inland. Second thing: the tide in the waterway runs hard, several knots in places, and paddling against it is a losing game.