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Tips, guides, and updates for better surf forecasting.

New England Fall Surf: Why September and October Are the Best Two Months

September 2, 2026

New England's surf year peaks in September and October: hurricane swell while the water is still warm, plus the cleanest offshore winds of the year. W

Weekly Surf Forecast: August 30 - September 5, 2026

August 30, 2026

Updated Wed Sep 2: Tropical Storm Marie moves SoCal's weekend peak to Sunday, with buoy receipts on Sunday's call. Original read: a long-period SSW gr

How to Set a Surf Alert for Your Home Break

August 27, 2026

An alert is only as good as its thresholds. A practical guide to the four numbers a surf alert should watch — height, period, direction and wind — and

Florida Hurricane Season Surf: Why Some Storms Deliver and Most Don't

August 26, 2026

Hurricane season is Florida's best shot at real surf and its biggest source of disappointment. Three things decide whether a storm delivers: the Baham

How Far Out Can You Trust a Surf Forecast?

August 24, 2026

The useful question is not how many days a forecast goes out. It is whether the swell already exists. Here is the one diagnostic that tells you how mu

Weekly Surf Forecast: August 23-29, 2026

August 23, 2026

Southern California is the only region in the country with Good ratings this week: 14-second south swell now, 17 seconds landing Saturday. With zero t

Orange County Surf: How a South Swell Wraps into Newport and Laguna

August 19, 2026

Orange County's coast doesn't face south, it faces southwest, and Catalina and San Clemente Island sit in the window. The geometry that decides whethe

Robert Moses State Park Surf: How Fire Island's Sandbars Change Through the Season

August 17, 2026

Fire Island's sandbars build, migrate and reset every year, and that quietly changes what a given swell height, period and direction actually produces

Weekly Surf Forecast: August 16-22, 2026

August 16, 2026

Every number below comes out of our nearshore SWAN model, run down to a 50-meter grid inside the surf zone — which is why two spots thirty miles apart

Swell Period Explained: Why 16 Seconds Beats 6

August 13, 2026

Swell period - the seconds between crests - sets a wave speed, its wavelength, and how early it feels the seafloor. Why a 16-second groundswell delive

Mid-Atlantic Summer Surf: How to Read South Wind Swell from New Jersey to Long Island

August 13, 2026

Most Mid-Atlantic summer surf is short-period wind swell, not groundswell. Here is how to tell the two apart on a forecast, why the same numbers produ

Weekly Surf Forecast: August 9-15, 2026

August 9, 2026

One region has real swell this week: Southern California, on a 15-second SSW groundswell with Trestles and Malibu up to 6ft. Everywhere else is small

Weekend Surf Forecast: August 8-9, 2026

August 7, 2026

A small, quiet weekend on most of the coast. One real groundswell - a 13-second SSW into Southern California - and short-period windswell everywhere e

Weekly Surf Forecast: August 2-8, 2026

August 2, 2026

Two real events this week: Monday's 3-4ft side-offshore day on the Jersey shore, and a building south groundswell giving Southern California Good morn

Weekend Surf Forecast: August 1-2, 2026

July 31, 2026

One region has real surf this weekend and most do not. A 13-14 second south groundswell has Trestles to 5ft Saturday morning, while the entire East Co

Weekend Surf Forecast: July 25-26, 2026

July 24, 2026

An honest region-by-region weekend surf forecast for July 25-26: a summer south swell lights up Southern California (Trestles, Malibu) while most of t

How to Read a Surf Forecast: Height, Period, and Direction

July 23, 2026

The three numbers that decide whether a swell is worth a dawn check — wave height, period, and direction — explained plainly, so you can read any surf

Tropical Storm Elida Delivers for SoCal — Weekend Surf Forecast: July 18-19, 2026

July 17, 2026

The East Pacific tropics delivered. The system we were watching midweek has organized into Tropical Storm Elida, and its long-period swell is now in r

Cape Point, Hatteras: How the Outer Banks Bends Hurricane Swell Into Barrels

July 15, 2026

Cape Point in Buxton is the East Coast's great swell magnet — a sandy elbow where Hatteras bends into the Atlantic and the Diamond Shoals sandbars foc

Hurricane Swell Watch: The East Pacific Tropics Wake Up — Here's SoCal's Honest Outlook

July 14, 2026

The East Pacific tropics just woke up — a storm likely to become Elida is forming off Mexico. Is a hurricane swell headed for SoCal? The honest read:

Weekly Surf Forecast: July 13-19, 2026

July 13, 2026

A West-Coast week: Southern California is the standout on a long-period South Pacific groundswell, with Trestles, Huntington and Malibu 4-5ft and clea

Weekend Surf Forecast: July 11-12, 2026

July 10, 2026

A tale of two coasts this weekend: a clean Southern Hemisphere groundswell has the entire West Coast awake, with Ocean Beach, Trestles and Malibu lead

SoCal South Swell Season: A Month-by-Month Guide to Summer's Best Surf

July 9, 2026

SoCal's best summer surf travels 5,000 miles from Southern Hemisphere storms off Antarctica. How south swell works, when it peaks month by month, whic

Inside the Biggest Upgrade Yet to the Swell Intel Forecast Engine

July 6, 2026

Meter-scale seafloor maps, true swell-shadow physics, and a forecast that grades itself against buoys and satellites every morning - a tour of what ju

Weekly Swell Analysis: April 1-7, 2026

April 1, 2026

Here's your weekly swell analysis for April 1-7, 2026, covering all seven Swell Intel forecast regions from coast to coast. Each section breaks down t

Introducing Wave Charts: Real-Time Offshore Wave Height Visualization

November 29, 2025

Introducing Wave Charts: Real-Time Offshore Wave Height Visualization See the swell before it hits the beach. We're excited to announce our newest f

Welcome to Swell Intel - Surf Forecast Intelligence

November 17, 2025

Welcome to Swell Intel - Professional Surf Forecasting Has Arrived Hi, we're Swell Intel. We're bringing professional-grade surf forecasting to eve

A New Look for Swell Intel

July 17, 2026

Swell Intel has been redesigned: light and dark themes, a clearer surf-rating scale, redesigned charts with a live conditions readout, and a live buoy