Frequently Asked Questions
If you don't find your answer below, feel free to contact us.
Mobile
StokeReport is lightweight enough to be used on phones with decent web-browser e.g. the iPhone.
You can use a phone to browse the site or even submit a report. We've currently only tested the iPhone for this.
The StokeReport team is developing a mobile version that you can use with more basic phones.
You can also send a report using SMS.
You can submit a report using twitter. Sign up for Twitter and register your phone. Once you've done this, add your twitter user-name into your settings page.
You can now simply send a SMS to 40404 with your report, making sure to include the location code (e.g. SFOB or SMLM) somewhere in the text. Your report will appear on the StokeReport home page in a few minutes.
Your text will take a few minutes to make its way to StokeReport.
If you haven't seen it after 10 minutes, check that you included the location code (e.g. SFOB) somewhere in the text.
Feel free to contact us for help.
Voting and Karma
Content quality is managed by the StokeReport community. If you get enough "down" votes on your new report or rant you may end up in the wastebasket. Don't take it to heart :)
If you like a report, give it the thumbs up. If you don't, thumbs-down.
We use this information to automatically remove crappy reports, and give karma to people making good reports.
You are allocated karma for submitting new reports, making comments and voting on stories. Karma is good for you.
Graphs and Data
The buoy composition graph shows you the relative composition of ground swell, wind swell and chop. It's based on a multi frequency energy analysis of the surf about 4 miles west of San Francisco. It also factors in real time wind speeds measured at the coast.
The 0-10 score, shown here with a value of 1.8, indicates the quality of the swell. 0=horrible and 10=beyond epic.
The graph and the score update at least every 15 minutes.
Periods are interpreted as follows
- Below 8s is Chop
- 8s - 12s is Wind Swell
- 12s - 18s is Ground Swell
- Above 18s is Mega Ground Swell
Although we try to make these graphs as accurate as possible, please don't rely on them for anything that might involve injury or death. That would be stupid.
The weather block shows a prediction of surfing conditions for the next five days.
Things to Consider:
- Wind arrows pointing to the left like this
, are east winds which are good. West winds are bad and look like this, 
. The background is color coded to help. Green=good. Yellow=neutral. Red=bad.
- Wave heights indicate predicted swell height. Wave faces may be up to 2x the wave height depending on the break.
- Conditions are shown for 9am on the day in question.
- New: You can get a detailed forecast by clicking on hour-by-hour
You may be interested to know that the wave height values in black are generated by buoy projections. These are typically more accurate than the lighter grey values derived from swell models. In the above example only the first 6' number is from the buoys.
Although we try to make this information as accurate as possible, please don't rely on it for anything that might involve injury or death. That would be stupid.
All the graph data comes from NOAA. Sometimes the buoy sensors go on the fritz and stop reporting data. In this case, the stokereport graphs indicate that the sensors are down.
You can see a when they plan to fix each issue on their maintenance page.
The StokeReport oceanography team has produced a unique visualization of NOAA buoy data. The buoy graphs show not only historical but also predicted swells.
We merge data from several buoys in the break's swell window. We use the closest buoy to make the near prediction. Further out buoys provide further out prediction. These graphs factor in swell decay and amplitude magnification as swells travel towards the shore.
The diagram below illustrates the main features of the graph:
These graphs allow you to answer questions like, "what will the swell be like tomorrow morning when I get up?"
Although we try to make these graphs as accurate as possible, please don't rely on them for anything that might involve injury or death. That would be stupid.
See Also
The diagram below illustrates the main features of the graph:
These graphs allow you to answer questions like, "what will the swell be like tomorrow morning when I get up?"
The StokeReport oceanography team has produced a unique visualization of NOAA buoy data. The buoy graphs show not only historical but also predicted swells.
We merge data from several buoys in the break's swell window. We use the closest buoy to make the near prediction. Further out buoys provide further out prediction. These graphs factor in swell decay and amplitude magnification as swells travel towards shore.
Note: Swell direction is measured in shallow water (4nm west of San Francisco) so indicates actual swell direction rather than direction of the swell origin (refraction to wsw accounting for the difference).
Although we try to make these graphs as accurate as possible, please don't rely on them for anything that might involve injury or death. That would be stupid.
The tide graphs show a historical and projected tide for your break. The diagram below illustrates the main features of the graph:
Although we try to make these graphs as accurate as possible, please don't rely on them for anything that might involve injury or death. That would be stupid.
See Also
The wind graph shows an at-sea, surface wind measurement close to your break.
The arrows indicate the wind direction.
Although we try to make these graphs as accurate as possible, please don't rely on them for anything that might involve injury or death. That would be stupid.
See Also
The graph data comes from NOAA, the National Weather Service and other Buoy services.
The buoy and wind data come from a variety of buoys. You can see a list of NOAA's buoys here.
RSS and API Access
StokeReport.com has several RSS feeds that you can subscribe to. Some common ones are:
- All Reports: http://stokereport.com/rss
- San Francisco Ocean Beach Reports: http://stokereport.com/rss/SFOB
- Pacifica, Linda Mar Reports: http://stokereport.com/rss/SMLM
- All Rants: http://stokereport.com/rss/rant
For other locations, just use the URL http://stokereport.com/rss/CODE, replacing CODE with the location code of your choice.
There is also a feed available for each user, for example the user "duckdive" as has an feed URL http://stokereport.com/rss/user/duckdive
No, but we're working on one.
Other
If you want to contact a user, simply go to their profile page (click on their user icon) and click on "contact me by email".
If you don't want to be contacted in this manner, go to your account page and unselect "Allow other users to contact you by e-mail"
Yes, we currently offer a few daily emails that you can subscribe to:
These are really easy to unsubscribe to, if you decide you don't like them. Clearly, we wont add you to any annoying spam lists either. I promise.
Forecasts
- North California Surf Forecast by StormSurf
Local Winds
- iKitesurf graphs for Fort Funston
- iKitesurf forecast for Fort Funston
- Bay Area Streaklines
- SF Zoo Weather Bug
Water Quality
- Ocean Beach Water Quality
- Pacifica Water Quality
- Montara Water Quality
- Grey Whale Cove Water Quality
- Rockaway Water Quality
- Half Moon Bay Water Quality
Cams
- Surfline South Ocean Beach Cam
- Surfline North Ocean Beach Cam
- SurfPulse Ocean Beach Cam
- Pacifica Cam
- USGS for Ocean Beach
Surfboard Repair
Surf Shops
Other
- California Water Temperatures
- CDIP 9 Band Plot for San Francisco
- SurfPulse classifieds (used boards, wetsuits etc.)
- Conditions at Twin Peaks (good for ambient wind conditions)
- Interactive weather underground map for San Francisco
- SF Boarders
- Blakestah (mostly defunct)
- The Waterman's Library (ocean oriented book reviews)
Rants are pretty much anything that you'd like to submit to stokereport that isn't a surf report.
Pictures and videos are particularly good.
You can create a Rant by clicking here
You can also Subscribe to StokeReport Rants by Email
You can add pictures to your posts in two ways.
- If you are creating a report using the website, simply click on "attached images" on the new report page, to attach up to 3 images.
- If you are creating a report on your phone, you should consider twitpic for pictures. You can post your report to twitter with a picture using several mobile devices.
Reports are only editable if they were created less than twelve hours ago from the web.
Simply send a request to the StokeReport team and we'll add your location.
Contact us here.
- What is StokeReport? StokeReport is a community-driven surf reporting website. Anyone can submit a rant, report or a picture of the conditions.
- How Can You Help? StokeReport needs reporters for all locations. Why not share the love, even if you can only submit a few reports a month?
- How to Get Started? Getting started is easy. Just signup for an account and then start submitting reports. You can submit a report using the website or sending a text (sms).
There has been some good discussion on the morality of posting report. Please consider reading these before starting another thread:
http://stokereport.com/rant/surfing-surf-reports-and-internet
http://stokereport.com/rant/how-ethical-website-do-we-need-more-insta-cr...
http://stokereport.com/rant/why-i-wont-be-posting-any-more-public-report...
