Crescent Head surf report and forecast
Forecast for the selected hour
Now · 8pm
2–3 ft · sets to 4
FairNo window today · next tomorrow 6–11am
The swell and the tide hold it back.
The wave field solved for this hour on the real seafloor, playing forward. A model, not a camera.
Loads when it comes into view.The wave field solved for this hour on the real seafloor, playing forward. A model, not a camera.
This hour
The 8pm readingSwell, wind, tide, breaker, energy, water
- Swell3.9 ft · 9 s · SEMakes the wave: 70% of the energy. Direction at the break.
- 2.2 ft · 6 s · NESecondary: 23% of the energy. Direction at the break.
- 1.2 ft · 9 s · ENESecondary: 7% of the energy. Direction at the break.
- Wind4 mph from the ENEOnshore to a shoreline facing 66°Light
- Tide-1.1 ft, fallingNext low -1.4 ft at 9:31pm · NAVD88, TICON coffs_harbour-205470-aus-bom predicted (no observed source in AU)
- BreakerSpillingBreaks in about 5 ft of water
- Energy155 kJHeight² × period²Moderate
- Water70° · air — · UV 0
High confidence.
Best windowNone today · next Tomorrow 6–11am
No usable window in daylight today.
Against what Crescent Head likesWhy it is Fair, not Fair-Good
Preferred tide and swell are surfer-consensus notes for this spot, not yet reviewed against measurements. Wind is judged by the general rule (light or offshore helps). No percent match: these are plain states and reasons.
Nearby at 8pmBlack Head, Boomerang Beach and 3 more
The break
The seafloorSand over a rock point
Shallow is light, deep is dark; contours every few feet; the relief is exaggerated.
- Bottomsand over a rock point
- DepthNSW Marine LiDAR Topo-Bathy 2018 (5 m, AHD). Depth shown is below the selected hour’s tide.
- CoverageRock reef and headland shapes resolve well. Nearshore sandbars are interpolated flat in this dataset, so a beachbreak’s bar is not in the picture. A tile’s year is its publication, not the survey date.
Why it breaks like this3 swells at once, the seafloor spreads it, where it trips
Read from the current hour (today at 8pm). Each number, and what it does to the wave.
3 swells at once
3.9 ft at 9s from the SE carrying 70% of the energy, plus 2.2 ft at 6s from the NE (23%), plus 1.2 ft at 9s from the ENE (7%).
The long-period train is the one building your wave. It holds the most energy and reaches deepest. The shorter ones cross it, which is what makes the surface look busy and the takeoff shift around. Why period matters more than height
The seafloor spreads it
Kr 0.85 · 75% of modelled rays break.
Energy is fanning outwards over the bottom here, so the wave arrives smaller than the open-ocean swell height suggests. Nothing is wrong with the forecast. The seafloor took the difference. Why two breaks a mile apart differ
Where it trips
-1.1 ft of tide; waves are breaking in about 5 ft of water.
A wave breaks when the water gets shallow enough relative to its height, so that depth is a contour on the seafloor, and the tide slides the whole break up and down it through the day. Same swell, different spot, a few hours apart. How the tide moves the break
Barely any wind
4 mph from the ENE, against a shoreline facing 66°.
Too light to shape the face either way. At this speed the wave's own texture wins, whatever the direction.
How Crescent Head worksA long, slow, tapering right around the point at Little Nobby,…
A long, slow, tapering right around the point at Little Nobby, running for hundreds of metres on the right swell — one of the waves Australian longboarding was built on. It is a wave about trim, not about power.
- Best tidemid to high
- Best swellS–SE groundswell
- Suitsbeginner
3 swell trains in the current hour · How this is calculated
Common questions4 questions about Crescent Head
- What is the best tide for Crescent Head?
- Crescent Head works best on mid to high tide. Tide matters because depth is what trips a wave: as the water fills in, the break slides shoreward onto a different part of the bottom, and over a shallow bank enough water stops it breaking at all. Our forecast solves each hour at that hour's real water level rather than assuming one.
- What swell direction is best for Crescent Head?
- S–SE groundswell suits Crescent Head best. The direction that matters is the one at the break, not the one on the buoy: the seafloor bends swell on its way in, so a spot can work on an angle the open coast is missing. We model that bending for each break rather than reporting the offshore direction.
- Is Crescent Head good for beginners?
- Crescent Head suits beginner surfers, over sand over a rock point. That is the wave this bottom makes on an average day, and it moves: the same break is a different proposition on a bigger swell or a different tide, so read the day's forecast rather than the label.
- What is the bottom like at Crescent Head?
- sand over a rock point. It is the reason this break behaves the way it does: the shape of the seabed decides where the swell focuses, where it trips, and whether it spills or pitches. We model Crescent Head on real 10-foot bathymetry instead of treating the seafloor as a slope.