16 October 2026
Most sessions start with fifteen minutes of tabs: a forecast in one, a webcam in another, a buoy, a tide table, a message from a friend who drove past. Surf Spoting puts what you need for a spot on one page, so checking the surf takes a minute and the time you save goes into the water.
It does not replace people who know a break. A model cannot tell you that the bank moved last week, which tide the locals paddle out on, or that the car park fills by seven. Where we are guessing, the guide says so, and every spot has a "looks wrong" link for the people who know better. If you surf somewhere regularly, you are the best source we have, and we would rather be corrected than be confidently wrong.
The ratings are estimates and they are meant as a starting point. If you have surfed a place for twenty years, the guide will not teach you much. What may still be useful is the comparison: what the buoy measured against what the forecast said, how the sandbars have moved on the satellite, and your own log of sessions. If the numbers disagree with what you see, trust your eyes and tell us.
We list spots that are already documented in public guides and maps, and we note crowd levels and hazards because they help people choose where to go. We do not go looking for secret spots. If a local community would rather a spot was left off or described differently, tell us through the button in the corner, and we will look at it.
Forecast data comes from open weather and wave models, satellite pictures from the European Copernicus programme, and maps from OpenStreetMap. The methodology page explains how the ratings and the satellite analysis work, and what they get wrong.