St Augustine Pier surf report and forecast
Forecast for the selected hour
Now · 9am
9–12 ft · sets to 15
Fair-GoodBest today All day (9am–7pm)
Swell lines up. Wind is the limiting factor.
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 9am readingSwell, wind, tide, breaker, energy, water
- Swell10.4 ft · 12 s · ENEMakes the wave: 100% of the energy. Direction at the break. Bent 8° from ENE in deep water.
- Wind28 mph from the NNECross-shore to a shoreline facing 84°Gale
- Tide-1.6 ft, slackNext low -1.7 ft at 9:07am · NAVD88, NOAA 8720587 predicted (no live sensor)
- BreakerSpillingBreaks in about 16 ft of water
- Energy1355 kJHeight² × period²Heavy
- Water78° · air 71° · UV 1
High confidence.
Best windowAll day (9am–7pm)
Against what St Augustine Pier likesWhy it is Fair-Good, not 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 9amJacksonville Beach Pier, New Smyrna Inlet and 3 more
The break
The seafloorSand around the pier, with a shallow inside bar
Shallow is light, deep is dark; contours every few feet; the relief is exaggerated.
- Bottomsand around the pier, with a shallow inside bar
- DepthCUDEM 1/9 arc-second (2018), relative to NAVD88. 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 thisOne swell, uncrossed, it bends on the way in, the seafloor is neutral here
Read from the current hour (today at 9am). Each number, and what it does to the wave.
One swell, uncrossed
10.4 ft at 12s from the ENE 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
It bends on the way in
That swell leaves deep water heading 58° and reaches the break at 66°, bent 8° on the way.
Shallow water slows a wave, so the end of the crest that reaches the shallows first swings around. That is refraction. It's why this spot can be working on a swell direction the open coast is missing, and why the swell angle on a buoy is never the angle at your break. Why two breaks a mile apart differ
The seafloor is neutral here
Kr 0.99 · 92% 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.
Where it trips
-1.6 ft of tide; waves are breaking in about 16 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
Wind is cross-shore
28 mph from the NNE, against a shoreline facing 84°.
Running across the face rather than into or against it. Less destructive than a straight onshore, but it puts a texture on the wall and can make the peak harder to read.
How St Augustine Pier worksSt Augustine Beach's pier sits on a gently sloping sand shelf…
St Augustine Beach's pier sits on a gently sloping sand shelf that turns almost any windswell into a workable, forgiving wave. It is where north Florida learns to surf. The bank shifts around the pilings, so the better peak alternates between the north and south side depending on the last few weeks of drift.
- Best tidemid to low
- Best swellNE–E windswell
- Suitsbeginner
1 swell train in the current hour · How this is calculated
Common questions4 questions about St Augustine Pier
- What is the best tide for St Augustine Pier?
- St Augustine Pier works best on mid to 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 St Augustine Pier?
- NE–E windswell suits St Augustine Pier 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 St Augustine Pier good for beginners?
- St Augustine Pier suits beginner surfers, over sand around the pier, with a shallow inside bar. 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 St Augustine Pier?
- sand around the pier, with a shallow inside bar. 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 St Augustine Pier on real 10-foot bathymetry instead of treating the seafloor as a slope.