🐚 Magic Seahorse

How the surf rating works

It's based mainly on three things: swell height, swell period, and wind.

Swell height & period — a longer period (8 seconds or more) means a clean, well-organised groundswell rather than short wind chop, giving waves more push and shape. Height needs to be in a rideable range too, roughly knee-to-head high (about 0.6–2.2m), to count as ideal. Under about 0.3m is treated as flat; much over 3m is usually too big and messy for this simple rating.

Wind — offshore wind (blowing from the land out to sea) grooms the wave face and holds it up, so it counts as a bonus, but only up to about 20mph (32km/h). Beyond that, even offshore wind can hold waves up too long and cause them to close out, so the benefit fades and starts counting against the rating instead. Onshore wind is treated the harshest, since it chops up the wave face fastest; cross-shore sits in between. Anything above about 34mph (55km/h) is rated "Blown out" regardless of direction.

How the paddleboarding rating works

It's much simpler than the surf rating, since standing on a board mostly means you're affected by wind (you're basically a sail) and general chop, not swell direction or period.

Wind under about 10mph (16km/h) with calm chop (under 0.5m) is rated Good. Wind between roughly 10–15mph (16–24km/h), or slightly bigger chop, is rated Caution — manageable for more experienced paddlers, but harder going for beginners. Above that, it's rated Unsafe for most paddlers.