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Guide

How to use Swellfy

A quick tour of the surf forecast: find a spot, read the 0–10 score, the energy/period chart and the swell map, browse history, and set PRO alerts.

  1. 1
    Find a spot

    Search by name, city or state — or browse state › city › spot. The panel over the map ranks the best spots in view by their current score.

  2. 2
    Read the score

    Colour and the 0–10 number say the same thing at two speeds: grey means no wave, orange means rideable, green means go. The full scale is below.

  3. 3
    Best window & days

    See the best time of day, and tap a day on the strip to open its hour-by-hour reading.

  4. 4
    The chart

    One bar per 3-hour window, all day from 00h to 21h. Bar height is wave height and its colour is the same scale as the swell map. Night blocks stay dimmed — the sea is continuous, the surfing is not.

  5. 5
    Swell map

    The satellite radar draws Swell A & B and the vaga (wind-sea) as cones over the spot, plus the wind arrow, the coastline and distance rings. Drag the slider under it (or hover the chart) to scrub hour by hour.

  6. 6
    History

    Pick a month/year to replay past conditions scored by the same engine — handy to sanity-check against real sessions.

  7. 7
    Alerts (SwellfyPRO)

    On the chart, pin a day and tap "Alert me on days like this" below it to save that day's swell setup (direction, size, period). We'll ping you — on the site and via push on your phone — when it lines up again. Manage everything in My Alerts.

The score

Understand the score

One number from 0 to 10 for how this spot is right now. It is not an average of pretty numbers: the wave's energy sets the base, and everything else weighs far more downward than up — wind alone can cut the score in half, and at its best it adds about a tenth. A big swell with the wrong wind does not score high, because it is not good.

The scale

  • 9.5+EpicDrop everything.
  • 9.0 – 9.4ExcellentThe kind of day you remember.
  • 7.5 – 8.9GoodWorth the drive.
  • 6.0 – 7.4Surfable to GoodSolid session, minor flaws.
  • 4.5 – 5.9SurfableRideable — go if it is close.
  • 3.0 – 4.4SmallSmall, or bigger but messy. Clean and small still delivers.
  • 1.5 – 2.9WeakBarely anything, or too messy to ride. Not a session.
  • < 1.5FlatNo wave.

Behind the number: wave energy, how the size fits this bottom, swell direction and period against this spot's window, wind, tide, how clean the sea is, and how the bank is doing after recent storms. Every one of them is measured for the hour you are looking at and calibrated for that specific spot. On the spot page, "Why this score" shows which one is holding it down right then.

What the score does not know: the crowd, how the bank is shaped this exact week beyond what recent storms tell us, and whether you are the kind of surfer that spot asks for. A 6 at your home break can beat an 8 three hours away.

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