What you can see on the Somo webcams
The cameras stand at the Loredo end of the beach and look west along the sand towards Somo and the mouth of the bay. One gives the wide view: the beach, the river channel that crosses it at low tide, the lines of breaking surf and the white buildings of Santander on the far shore. The other zooms in across the water to the city, with the lighthouse on the island of Mouro in front of it, and at times frames the shoreline close up where the waves break. Both stream live, with time-lapses of the last 24 hours behind them.
Somo surf webcam: Loredo beach looking towards Somo
This surf camera stands behind the beach at Loredo, above a beach building whose dark roof shows in the bottom corner, and looks west along the sand towards Somo. A shallow river channel winds across the beach in front, the dunes and wooded slopes run along the left, and the waves break in long white lines on the right. On the far side of the bay mouth, the buildings of Santander line the horizon.
It is a wide, honest view of the conditions: how far out the surf is breaking, how many lines of whitewater there are and how much beach the tide has left. The live stream goes with the 24-hour time-lapse, handy for seeing how the swell built or dropped through the day.
Somo webcam: zoom across the bay to Santander
From the same surf beach, this camera zooms across the mouth of Santander Bay. The city's apartment blocks climb the hillside above the Sardinero, and in front of them the island of Mouro lifts its white lighthouse above the water. In the foreground, the waves break on the sand of Somo and Loredo.
The long lens makes it the camera for the shore break: you can see the size and shape of each wave as it reaches the beach, and how much white water there is between the sets. At times it also points down at the shoreline close up. On hazy days the city fades out; on clear days after rain it looks close enough to touch.
One long beach, three names
The sand starts at El Puntal, a spit of dunes reaching into Santander Bay, runs past the village of Somo and carries on to Loredo: together more than 8 km (5 miles) of beach, one of the longest in Cantabria. The open-sea side picks up the swell of the Bay of Biscay, which is why surf schools line the seafront and boards are out on the water in every season.
When to watch Somo
Somo is one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland. The cameras face west, so the morning light comes from behind them and shows the sea at its clearest. Watch the tide as well as the swell: at low water the beach is vast and the waves break further out. Autumn and spring often bring the best surf; in summer the swell is smaller, the water warmer and the evenings long.
Around Somo
Passenger boats run across the bay between Somo and the centre of Santander, a much shorter trip than the road round. El Puntal, a walk along the sand from the village, has quieter beaches looking across at the city. Pedreña, where Seve Ballesteros was born and learned his golf, is just along the bay.
Visiting Somo
Lifeguards watch the main beach in season, and the flags show where to swim and where to surf. Currents at the mouth of the bay, off El Puntal, can be strong, so stay out of the water there.
