Monterey Bay Surf Report & Ideal Conditions
See your personalized forecast for Monterey Bay
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Download LazySurfer →Best conditions for Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay is most often good on a 4–6 ft medium-period (8–16s) swell from the NW, with light wind from the N, on a high incoming tide — the conditions LazySurfer surfers have logged and rated highest across the surrounding region.
| Ideal wave height | 4–6 ft |
| Ideal period | medium-period (8–16s) |
| Best swell direction | NW |
| Best wind | light wind from the N |
| Best tide | high & incoming |
These best-conditions estimates come from real sessions LazySurfer users rated highly at this break — not an editorial guess (high-confidence read). In the app, LazySurfer's custom deep-learning model predicts your own 1–5★ rating at about 90% exact-match accuracy (97.6% within one star). How LazySurfer works →
Current conditions
Latest reading from the nearest NOAA buoys (UTC 2026-07-30 11:20 UTC). LazySurfer reads this same public NDBC data directly — no proprietary smoothing. New to buoy data? See how to read a NOAA buoy.
| Wave height | 7.5 ft |
| Dominant period | 8s |
| Swell direction | NW (313°) |
| Wave buoy | NDBC station 46042 (31 mi away) |
| Wind | 6 kt from the N — NDBC 46092 (13 mi away) |
Monterey Bay 7-day surf forecast
Model wave & wind outlook for Monterey Bay from NOAA's GEFS-Wave model, refreshed daily. Heights are open-water swell (face heights at the break are typically larger).
| Day | Swell height | Period & direction | Wind |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu Jul 30 | 6–7 ft | 15s SSW | 11 kt NNW |
| Fri Jul 31 | 6 ft | 13s SSW | 12 kt NNW |
| Sat Aug 1 | 5–7 ft | 8s NW | 11 kt NNW |
| Sun Aug 2 | 7–8 ft | 9s NW | 10 kt NW |
| Mon Aug 3 | 7–8 ft | 10s NW | 9 kt NW |
| Tue Aug 4 | 5–7 ft | 10s NW | 13 kt SW |
| Wed Aug 5 | 4–5 ft | 9s NW | 14 kt SW |
Tide
Predicted tide for the next two days from NOAA station 9413450 (MONTEREY, MONTEREY BAY), the nearest tide station (0 mi away). Times local.
- 2026-06-06 01:57 — High 4.394 ft
- 2026-06-06 09:41 — Low -0.062 ft
- 2026-06-06 17:07 — High 3.869 ft
- 2026-06-06 21:55 — Low 2.917 ft
- 2026-06-07 02:59 — High 3.964 ft
- 2026-06-07 10:21 — Low 0.258 ft
Frequently asked
Is Monterey Bay good for surfing right now?
As of the latest buoy reading (2026-07-30 11:20 UTC), Monterey Bay is fair: the live 6 ft+ short-period swell from the NW matches its ideal NW direction and is bigger than usual, and the wind is light from the N.
Where does LazySurfer's surf data for Monterey Bay come from?
LazySurfer reads public data directly from NOAA's National Data Buoy Center and the National Weather Service — the nearest NDBC wave buoy (station 46042) and the nearest NOAA tide station (MONTEREY, MONTEREY BAY). The same raw readings NOAA publishes, with no proprietary smoothing.
What are the best surf conditions for Monterey Bay?
Monterey Bay is most often good on a 4–6 ft medium-period (8–16s) swell from the NW, with light wind from the N, on a high incoming tide — the conditions LazySurfer surfers have logged and rated highest across the surrounding region.
Does LazySurfer predict whether Monterey Bay is good for me?
Yes. LazySurfer trains a custom deep-learning model — a PyTorch neural network with per-user embeddings, retrained weekly on real logged surf sessions from the LazySurfer community — to predict the 1-to-5 star rating you personally would give, rather than a single average rating for everyone.
Nearby spots
- Monterey State Beach — 1 mi
- Marina State Beach — 7 mi
- Pleasure Point — 24 mi
- Steamer Lane — 25 mi
- Capitola — 25 mi
Learn more: How LazySurfer works · Groundswell vs windswell · Surf period explained · Compare surf apps