Cracking the Code:
Surf Forecasting Tools and Tips for Scoring Perfect Waves
words by aske foyd | illustrations by Christina Sierra
Deciphering a surf forecast can be a daunting task if you are new to surfing or maybe surfing a new spot. At the shop we can spend a lot of time staring at these forecasts and over the years have found some tips and tricks to help you pick a time and place to surf.
In this article you will find some general wave knowledge points, as well as our favourite surf forecasting tools, so you can avoid the dreaded skunking.
To start, you have to understand a couple of points about waves, wind and tide:
Waves
Waves are forecasted using 3 metrics: height, period and direction. The height of a wave is measured from trough to crest and is listed in feet or metres. A higher swell height will obviously result in bigger waves at the beach.
The period of a wave is the time elapsed between one wave crest passing a single point to the next wave crest passing that point. Wave period is always measured in seconds. Longer period waves are cleaner and more organized than short period waves. Long period waves are also associated with higher wave energy - one of our favourite forecasting websites even lists the energy in kilojoules of the forecasted swell. For this reason, a 4ft swell at 12 seconds will be larger, cleaner, and more organized than a 4ft at 8 second swell.
Direction is measured in degrees on the compass and helps us figure out which beach the swell will be hitting the best. Once you have the swell direction dialed, it's easier to narrow down your choice of surf spots. Keep in mind that offshore obstacles may block incoming swell.
Wind
Wind thousands of kilometres away is what creates the swell that we surf, but localized wind can make or break your session. Ideally we'd have no wind, but off shore wind is definitely better than onshore.
Offshore wind is wind that travels from land to sea and can groom the wave face. Onshore wind blows from sea to land and causes the wave to topple earlier and can make the surf more messy.
Tide
In Tofino we have a wide variety of beach breaks to choose from and the sand is always moving around, creating and destroying perfect sandbanks. Because of this, forecasting whether a certain tide will produce good surf is almost impossible.
Instead, you'll have to seek anecdotal evidence by checking the surf at various tides or asking around to see what tide spot X has been good on. For example, you may hear that spot X had been amazing for the past two weeks at low tide, but this week it has been better at high tide
Now that we have the basics down, we can use the tools at our disposal to forecast the surf and head to the right beach.
Surf-Forecast.com
Amongst our staff, our favourite tool is Surf-Forecast.com. This is usually the first thing we check, as we can select the forecast for which beach we want to surf and get an overview of what it will be like on a given day. Beyond the usual surf forecasting points, we also get wave energy in kilojoules, sunset and sunrise times, as well as a simple weather forecast. By hovering over the swell height for a given time frame, we can also see the forecasted secondary swells. This forecast shows you the wind forecast, but also lets you know if this will be onshore, off shore, glassy, cross offshore, etc..
Surf-Forecast.com
Windy.com
After checking Surf-Forecast.com, we usually move over to Windy.com. We mainly use windy for wind and swell. It shows very detailed models on a map of how wind and waves move over a given area. It is super useful in judging whether a given swell will hit a certain surf spot. It's also really helpful in judging whether or not the wind will be onshore or offshore, as well as if a certain spot will be shielded from the wind.
Windy.com
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Windy.com: Wind Map
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Windy.com: Swell Map
Government of Canada Weather
Lastly, the only real way to check exactly what the wind is doing right before you head to the beach is to head to the Government of Canada's website for wind monitoring at Long Beach airport. This station updates every hour and can tell you the wind speed and direction. As you head out the door, make sure to refresh this to double check your forecasting.
Weather.gc.ca
Forecasting takes practice - it's a mix of science and art. Checking the forecasts and then the beach time and time again will help you build a mental database on which conditions line up to the perfect surf session.
Aided by our favourite forecasting tools outlined in this article, we hope to lessen the learning curve of this tricky part of surfing. When all else fails, check the chalkboard outside of Storm that is updated daily on the surf conditions and our beach recommendation for the day.
See you out there!!