The MagicSeaweed Replacement
Open the site. Pick a spot. Get the forecast. The way MSW worked.
When MagicSeaweed shut down in 2023, surfers lost the simplest surf check on the internet: a free 7-day forecast with swell, wind, and tide, no account required. Free Surf Forecast brings that workflow back — and adds live buoy observations, surf cameras, swell maps, and a session planner on top.
What Carries Over From MSW
| MagicSeaweed had | Free Surf Forecast has |
|---|---|
| Free 7-day spot forecast, no account | Same — 7 days, hourly, no account, no ads |
| Swell height, period, and direction | Same, with peak period (Tp) and swell-direction-aware spot scoring |
| Wind speed and direction | Same, with offshore/onshore classification per beach orientation |
| Tide tables | NOAA tide predictions, charted and overlaid on the wave forecast |
| Star rating | 0–100 surf score per 3-hour window — same idea, but the formula is open source |
| Global spot coverage | 145 US spots with their own pages, plus an on-demand forecast for any coordinate on the map worldwide |
| Charts and swell maps | Ocean-basin swell map plus local wave height, period, and wind grids |
What's New Since MSW
- Live NDBC and CDIP buoy observations with wave energy spectra
- Free surf cameras where public streams exist
- A session planner that scores every daylight window for your skill level
- Push alerts when your spot's score clears your threshold — no email needed
- Installable app (PWA) with offline support for the last-loaded forecast
- The entire codebase is open source on GitHub
Losing MSW Meant Losing Your Spot List
The shutdown took the spot pages with it, and plenty of those breaks were never picked up anywhere else. You don't need us to have added yours. Open the location picker, click the break on the map, and you get the same 7-day wave height, period, swell direction, and wind forecast for that exact coordinate, plus any live cams nearby. The 145 spots on our locations list are simply the ones with their own pages and a curated beach-facing direction.
The Honest Limits
MagicSeaweed had thousands of named spot pages with break descriptions, photos, and a community around them. We have 145 curated spots and no community — the rest of the world is a coordinate you click, not a page you can search by name. Wave, wind, and cam coverage is worldwide, but tide predictions (NOAA CO-OPS) and buoy observations (NDBC and CDIP) are US-only, so a forecast abroad comes without a tide curve or buoy readings. If you want named spot pages outside the US, Surfline is the closest thing to old MSW, and Windy is free though it's a general weather tool.