Monastery Beach Surf Report & Forecast
Notorious shorebreak over a canyon wall. Not a beginner wave.
Current conditions
2 ftmax ~3 ft
Fair-Good · plunging
Modelled on real 10-foot bathymetry. These figures cover size, shape and wind. Whether the wave is makeable comes from the simulation.
- Swell
- 2.1 ft at 5s from the WNW
- Wind
- 1 mph NW onshore
- Tide
- 5.4 ft
- Break depth
- 3 ft
- Power
- 1 kW/m
- Water
- 60°F · 3/2 fullsuit
Updated Aug 25, 6:42 PM PDT · 1 swell train · how this is calculated
How Monastery Beach is breaking right now
Solved in your browser from this spot’s seafloor and current swell
What the seafloor does to this wave
A cut straight out from Monastery Beach, solved on the real seafloor at this hour’s swell and tide.
Why Monastery Beach looks like this right now
The numbers above, and what each one is actually doing to the wave.
One swell, uncrossed
2.1 ft at 5s from the WNW and nothing significant crossing it.
A single train is the cleanest case there is: the sets arrive from one angle, so the peak should sit in the same place each time instead of wandering. Why period matters more than height →
The seafloor is neutral here
Kr 0.94 · 53% of modelled rays break.
Energy arrives roughly as it left deep water: this bottom neither concentrates the swell nor fans it out, so what the buoy sees is close to what you get. Why two breaks a mile apart differ →
Where it trips
5.4 ft of tide; waves are breaking in about 3 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
1 mph from the NW, against a shoreline facing 317°.
Too light to shape the face either way. At this speed the wave's own texture wins, whatever the direction.
How the sets come
About one set every 1 min, roughly 7 waves in it.
Swell arrives in groups, not evenly. That spacing is what you are really timing your paddle-out to, and it's why the lineup can look flat for minutes and then produce five waves at once. Why period matters more than height →
Monastery Beach surf forecast, next 6 days
Building — ~4.2 ft short-period windswell from the WNW filling in Thu evening (+2.1 d, high confidence)
| Day | Surf | Best window | Swell | Wind | Tide |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2-3 ft | 5pm to 7pmGood | 2.6 ft at 6s WNW | 1 mph onshore | Low 0.0 ft 4amHigh 4.2 ft 11amLow 2.5 ft 3pmHigh 5.8 ft 9pm | |
| 2-4 ft | 6am to 7amFair-Good | 2.9 ft at 6s WNW | 5 mph cross-shore | Low 0.0 ft 4amHigh 4.4 ft 11amLow 2.3 ft 4pmHigh 5.7 ft 10pm | |
| 2-4 ft | 6am to 10amFair-Good | 3.2 ft at 7s WNW | 7 mph onshore | Low 0.2 ft 5amHigh 4.7 ft 11amLow 2.0 ft 5pmHigh 5.5 ft 11pm | |
| 3-4 ft | 8amFair | 2.9 ft at 7s WNW | 9 mph onshore | Low 0.5 ft 5amHigh 4.9 ft 12pmLow 1.7 ft 6pmHigh 5.1 ft 11pm | |
| 3-4 ft | 8amFair | 2.9 ft at 7s WNW | 8 mph onshore | Low 0.9 ft 6amHigh 5.2 ft 12pmLow 1.4 ft 6pm | |
| 2-3 ft | 8amFair | 2.2 ft at 7s WNW | 7 mph onshore | High 4.7 ft 12amLow 1.4 ft 6amHigh 5.4 ft 1pmLow 1.2 ft 7pm |
Daylight hours only. The best window is the run of hours the model rates highest that day.
How Monastery Beach works
The Carmel Submarine Canyon comes within metres of the sand, so swell arrives almost unshoaled and detonates on a near-vertical beach. Locally nicknamed Mortuary Beach; people die here regularly.
- Bottom
- coarse sand plunging into the Carmel Canyon
- Best tide
- low
- Best swell
- W–NW
- Suits
- expert
Common questions about Monastery Beach
- What is the best tide for Monastery Beach?
- Monastery Beach works best on low 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 Monastery Beach?
- W–NW suits Monastery Beach 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 Monastery Beach good for beginners?
- Monastery Beach suits expert surfers, over coarse sand plunging into the Carmel Canyon. 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 Monastery Beach?
- coarse sand plunging into the Carmel Canyon. 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 Monastery Beach on real 10-foot bathymetry instead of treating the seafloor as a slope.
Nearby breaks
- Carmel Beach surf report · 2 ft
- Asilomar State Beach surf report · 2-3 ft
- Marina State Beach surf report · 2 ft
- Moss Landing State Beach surf report · 2-3 ft
- Zmudowski State Beach surf report · shorebreak only