▶ Cal Coast Tides
Tides, swell and wind for the California coast, in plain English.
The problem
Tides on one site, swell on another, wind on a third, buoys in raw text files. None of them answer the real question: is it a good time to go?
The answer
Every station opens with one plain sentence about the tide, so you know what the water is doing before a single chart loads.
Conditions console
Tide and live water level, nearby buoys, wind, sky and sea temperature, plus an outlook for fishing, surfing, kayaking and tidepooling.
Coverage
When to go
A 72-hour timeline lines up tide, wind and swell, then marks the best hours for each activity.
Prediction vs. reality
Live sensors measure the water every six minutes. When wind or air pressure holds the sea above or below the prediction, you see the gap.
Swell alert
An offshore buoy feels a new northwest swell hours before it reaches the beach. For Port San Luis, the site spots it and gives a likely arrival window.
Buoy check
Each nearby buoy's measured waves are compared with the forecast for the same spot over the last six hours, so you know if the ocean is running bigger or smaller.
Surf spots
Ten named Central Coast spots get their own wave size, wind and tide read, graded hour by hour. Surfers report how it really was, and those reports tune the size.
Tidepool planner
Two weeks of tides with day and night marked. The lowest tides that fall in daylight are pulled out for you.
Coast map
Learn as you go
Jargon on every panel has a plain-English definition. A short guide explains each panel, and Tide School goes deeper.
Trust
Tide predictions and water levels from NOAA Tides & Currents, measured waves from NOAA's buoy network, forecasts from Open-Meteo. Arrival times come as windows, never a made-up minute.
Works anywhere
Start in a minute