15 km/h onshore making it messy, small or weak swell (≈1m @ 9s, 1.6m offshore), short period — expect punchy sets, tide is on.
Swell
Wind
Wind 15 km/h ENE Swell S— Spot faces E
Wind makes or breaks it, bru. Offshore (blowing land to sea) grooms the faces clean and glassy — lukka. Onshore chops it all into mush. Under about 10 km/h it hardly matters — basically glass.Wind↓15 km/h ENEOnshore
1.6m @ 9s S reads as: a 1.6 metre swell, 9 seconds between each wave, marching in from the S. The @ is just "at".
Period is the secret, boet: 12s+ is proper groundswell — organised lines with real punch. Under 10s is local windswell that folds quick. Same size, longer period = way more klap.
Two numbers, two different things. The metres is the swell way out at sea. The feet is the wave face you'll actually be looking at when you paddle out — measured trough to crest on the side you ride, the way Surfline and every SA beach report calls it. It is not the old Hawaiian back-of-the-wave scale, which reads about half.
Rough guide: 3ft waist-to-chest · 5ft shoulder-to-head · 6ft+ overhead, and you'll know about it, ekse.Swell↓1.6m @ 9s S≈ 4ft face
Size and period smashed into one number — the real 'is it worth it?' gauge, ekse.< 40 kJ basically flat40–100 small100–180 fun180–450 solid — punchy450+ heavy — vy with respectLong period klaps way harder than the same size at short period. See 'Swell shadow'? A headland or bay is blocking part of the swell — the number here is what actually reaches the spot, the offshore one is what's out at sea.Energy39 kJ
Swell shadow · 102 kJ offshore
Tiny
2nd Swell↓0.6m @ 14s SSW
Pushing in or draining out, and when it turns. Most banks have a favourite tide — right tide and the spot comes alive, wrong tide and it goes fat or dumpy. Time your session, china.TideMid / Rising — High in 4h 1m
Water21°C · Spring suit
UV IndexLow — just a touch of sunscreen.
Paddling isn't about speed, it's about position. Two smart strokes beat ten panicked ones.
