East Sussex, England

Bexhill-on-Sea put-in (Rother)

Launch — A public slipway on the promenade at Cooden, giving onto a long, gently sloping shingle foreshore.

Parking — Beach parking is banned under Rother's Public Spaces Protection Order, and Herbrand Walk, the road behind the beach huts, has double yellow lines; the nearest council car park is at Little Common.

Access — Reached on foot along the public promenade and Herbrand Walk; vehicle access onto the beach itself is prohibited, so this is a hand-carry launch. Rye Harbour is Rother's only designated jet ski launch and recovery site, and the district bars a powered personal watercraft from launching anywhere else, including here.

Season — Cooden is unsupervised year-round; Rother's nearest lifeguard cover is at Bexhill's central beach, daily from mid-July to early September.

Regulations — Rother District Council's beach guidance for its seafronts accommodates kayaking within its flag system; the council's foreshore licences cover stored boats, winches and equipment boxes rather than casual launching, and no fee for hand-carried unpowered craft is published.

This launch point sits on the promenade at Cooden, the western end of Bexhill-on-Sea's seafront noted for its golf and tennis clubs, and gives access to the English Channel.

Tides and the water offshore

Off Bexhill the flood tide runs east-going and the ebb west-going. At the Royal Sovereign shoals, the nearest tidal-stream station, the flood sets about 068° and the ebb about 248°, with spring rates of roughly 2.6 knots on the flood and around 1.8 knots on the ebb.

Further offshore, the Royal Sovereign Shoals and the Horse of Willingdon, with the intervening Long Shoal, can produce rough seas and overfalls in certain conditions, and Beachy Head to the west is charted as a tidal gate in its own right. Royal Sovereign Lighthouse, which marked the shoals for over 50 years, was switched off by Trinity House on 21 March 2022 and later removed; the shoals are now marked by buoys instead. The water off Bexhill falls within the Beachy Head East Marine Conservation Zone, an inshore site designated in May 2019 that protects chalk and sandstone reef, blue mussel beds, Ross worm reef and the short-snouted seahorse.

Nearby

Show on map

Sovereign Light Café

A cafe on Bexhill's West Parade promenade, about three-quarters of a mile east of the Cooden slipway.

Kloofs

Touring caravan and tent pitches bookable by the public, about two miles inland from Cooden beach.

Website

Conditions to check

Tidal flow

Rother District Council's guidance for Cooden and Normans Bay describes fast incoming tides and sandbars that can cut people off.

Source

Shallow or rocky

Soft sand and mud are exposed at low tide, weeverfish are present in the shallows, and groynes and outfall pipes cross the foreshore, per the same council guidance.

Source

Boat traffic

Bexhill Sailing Club races off the seafront every weekend through the season, with extra events often scheduled for Wednesday evenings.

Source

Log in to add a photo. Paddled here? Add the first photo — we review each one before it goes on the page.

Questions

No questions yet

Ask about parking, access or conditions. Anyone who knows this water can answer.

Log in to ask or answer. Share what you know about this spot.

Comments

No comments yet.

Log in to comment. Add conditions or a photo to this spot.

Save your own spots

Keep the places you launch, check the wind and shelter before you go, and log every paddle. Add a spot to the directory too, and other paddlers will find it. Free to start.

Get started, it’s free Log in

Location data

OpenStreetMap

View this point on OpenStreetMap