surf reporT CROYDE

Discover where & When to Surf Today

MSW - Magic Seaweed Surf Report - Croyde Bay

Surfing Croyde Bay, your local Surfing England Centre of excellence, have partnered with Magic Seaweed to bring you live and forecasted surf reports for Croyde Bay. Check wave height, wind speed and direction, and swell period here.

Windy.com - Swell, Wind & Waves In Real Time - Croyde Bay

Surfing Croyde Bay have partnered with Magic Seaweed to bring you live and forecasted surf reports for Croyde Bay. Check wave height, wind speed and direction, and swell period here.

Wind Strength & Direction

Ideal surf conditions occur with a very gentle offshore breeze of less than 10 mph. Strong onshore winds result in a blown out surf forecast, where the waves have poor shape.

Primary Swell & Direction

Primary swell of greater than 12 second swell period will result in powerful waves. The best quality waves occur in the 16-20+ second swell period.

Secondary Swell & Direction

Secondary swells are swells that are produced far offshore by wind. For well organised waves the secondary swell should be as small as possible.

Localised Wind Waves & Direction

The windsea (also called wind waves) is a localised swell that is created by localised wind. It produces weak waves with a low swell period.

Understanding The Surf Report

The seastate at any one given time is made up of a combination of different waves:

Windsea or wind waves are localised waves that are created by local winds in your area.
The main swell is created by strong winds that have occured in a far away geographic location. These waves have travelled hundreds and thousands of miles to your shore.
Secondary swells are caused by lighter winds in far away places. This is a smaller swell that has also travelled a great distance to reach your shore.

Waves also known as the sea state or the total sea is equal to:

Wind Waves + Primary Swell + Secondary Swell

This is all important to surfing as you are able to look at these conditions and work out the quality of the waves to surf on, now and in the future. The optimal conditions for surfing occur with a powerful primary swell 15 secs+, low levels of secondary swell and light offshore breeze. If you see powerful wind waves it is likely that the surf will be very disorganised.