Report history??

Have you checked out sites like Magic Seaweed? They have an excellent history option which I have used often and found it to be a great resource for determining when to go where.

 

Magic seaweed is an interesting read :

From today:

On average, Indian River Inlet has more swell than ocean city maryland every month of the year...

The most consistent month for swell at IRI is september - about three times more consistent than December...

This week, IRI is forecast to have 6 feet of swell tuesday, 7 feet wednesday, 4 feet thursday and 7 feet friday.

 

Indian River history

There is something wrong with the model for IRI on MS. It always calls for waves much bigger then OC and is almost never correct. Many days it will predict 6'+ for IRI and only 2' in OC, most times OC is always bigger. IRI is good when the conditions are right, but generally is not worth the trip up. I noticed this over a year ago and have learned to ignor it the MS model. I am certain the historical data is wrong as well, you know the old saying with computers GIGO "garbage in = garbage out".

 

Do you guys find Magic Seaweed useful for things outside of Swellinfo?

If so, please explain, so I can tell you why you are wrong for thinking so

I dont personally see any reason to look at the MagicSeaweed data. What they do is regurgitate the wavewatch III model data and serve up the average wave height for select grids that they associate with surf spots. Same deal for buoyweather - Kind of cool if Swellinfo wasn't around to give you better data.

Swellinfo runs the wave model, sorts out the different swells (not just average wave heights) of all the combined swells at the forecast location, and then translates into surf heights. Best data to look at is Swellinfo Swell Plots.

If you do want the average wave heights, you can look in the Swellinfo hourly section. I will likely make some sort of virtual buoy data interface in the future, not because it will make for better surf forecasts, but because people like to look at it (more useful for mariners).

 

Personally, I like the historical data on MS. I also prefer the hourly outlook format and the star system of rating waves. I use Swellinfo & MS as my two primary sites for forcasting. I use Surfline and other sites on occasion for thier different types of info. as well. Many times the various models don't always see things the same and I find it interesting to compare them. FYI, Swellinfo does a great job predicting and I love the many more detail locations found here.

 

i dont think theres been a single day that magic sea weed has gotten a forecast right it sucks and i hate everything about that website. swellinfo for life

 

we all have our ups and downs

i use swellinfo like a priest with his bible. MS always overpredicts wave heights. i do use it for the 7-day tides table and occassionally for the spectral outlook as well. the star system is good, but the data on MS isn;t accurate enough to rely on it.

i love how swellinfo uses swell direction, period, winds, and everything else to specify a forecast for a specific spot, not a generalized grid like u were talking about....keep it up!!!

 

Swellinfo-

I definitely prefer the Swellinfo models to the Magicseaweed models. Take my home area (southern NC) for example. The Bogue Pier (Emerald Isle) models are grossly inflated (every day over 5ft- I wish!) while the Oceanic Pier (Wrightsville Beach) models are usually smaller than they should be.

I think, however, that the MSW is a bit easier to read. The 'detailed' summery makes a nice chart that shows the swell hight, swell period, swell direction, wind speed, and wind direction every 3 hours. Its easier to determine the wind and swell direction this chart vice the large area maps that you provide. Of course, it doesn't matter if its easy to read if its not accurate. I usually use a combination of the two.

I hope this helps if you ever decide to redesign the site. Your forecasts are better, but the MSW gives easier to read (but often inaccurate) information.

One thing i would like you to bring back- the 'Hot Spot" that used to be on the right column of the homepage. Its cool to see who's catching it big while your stuck in a flat spell.

I'm sure I speak for everyone here when I say thank you for this site and all of your hard work.

 

your welcome. the swell plots and wind timeline are every 6 hours right now. I have some cool ideas that I hope to implement in the not so distant future, where the timeline will be broken down hour by hour.

 

quite the oppposite...i don't find it useful at all. Like you said, it seems to be a site that takes model data (WWIII) and tries to convert that raw data into surf spot forecasts in a very crude manner. It doesn't even seem to handle basic surf forecasting details like swell vs. wind wave and swell direction vs. coastal orientation very well.

 

they dont do anything at all. just present the average wave heights that come straight from the model data. If you have a 5ft average wave height at a particular location, that could be mean that there is a 2ft swell from the SE and a 4ft wave from the W (moving away from the coast). But, there is no way to know from just taking an average wave height. Its pretty good for mariners tho.

 

I always though they showed the dominate swell not the average, but hey, I don't know much. Ask my wife if you don't believe me!!!

 

no - let me clarify a bit. Its a significant wave height measurement. Significant wave height is a measurement of the top 1/3 highest waves, by taking all of the concurrent waves in the spectrum. But these waves can be any where in the spectrum, and it doesn't sort out the individual swells. That is why, often this data can be very misleading. There could be a 6ft at 6 second NE wind swell and a 2ft and 12 second SE ground swell, so the MS numbers may read 6ft at 12 seconds.

 

I have never like MS just look at the difference between IR and OC does not make sense. Buoyweather on the other hand I have liked for a long time, do not use it very much anymore since you came out with this site, but still use it every once in a while as back up. Buoyweather actually seems to be one of the more acurate sites, IR is always smaller than OC which is true. Swellinfo is the best then I use buoyweather and stormsurf as back up...