El Capitan surfForecast / CAL – Santa Barbara / USA

information circle48hr Weather and Surf, issued 4 am Sunday 12 Apr 2026 PDT
Forecast update in hr  min  s Forecast update imminent
El Capitan surf forecast is for near shore open water. Breaking waves will often be smaller at less exposed spots.
Today's El Capitan sea temperature is
15.3° C
(Which is 1.7°C warmer than normal for this time of year)

How big are the waves at El Capitan today?

The current surf forecast for El Capitan at 7AM is: 0.8m 15s primary swell from a South-southwest direction and 1.1m 7s secondary swell from a West direction (forecast issued at 04:00am April 12). The wind direction is predicted to be cross-offshore and the swell rating is 2.

Time (PDT) & DateWave HeightWave Period
Morning (12 Apr)2.5ft (0.8m)15s
Afternoon (12 Apr)4.5ft (1.3m)10s
Evening (12 Apr)5ft (1.5m)10s

Table - waves today at El Capitan. (Swell directed towards the surf break)


Updates in  hr  min  s Forecast update imminent
Sunday
12
Monday
13
Tuesday
14
2AM5AM8AM11AM2PM5PM8PM11PM2AM5AM8AM11AM2PM5PM8PM11PM2AM5AM8AM11AM2PM5PM8PM11PM
Rating
(10 max)
0
2
2
1
0
1
3
3
3
3
2
1
0
0
0
1
2
2
2
1
0
0
0
1
Swell
Height Map
Wave Height (m) & direction (?)
0.8
SSW
0.8
SSW
0.8
SSW
0.8
SSW
1.2
W
1.4
WNW
1.5
W
1.5
W
1.5
WNW
1.5
WNW
1.4
WNW
1.3
WNW
1.4
WNW
1.4
WNW
0.6
SSW
0.6
SSW
1.4
WNW
1.3
WNW
1.5
WNW
1.3
WNW
1.4
WNW
0.5
SSW
0.4
SSW
1.5
WNW
Period(s) (?)161515151110101010101010101014148888716167
Wave
Graph
(?)Metric surfscale
Energy kJ (?)306291249242326410477477432424363307348334156156226209253199208147102211
Wind
(km/h)
10
SW
10
NW
10
NW
15
W
15
WSW
15
WSW
10
WNW
10
NNW
10
NNW
10
NNW
10
NNW
20
WNW
30
WNW
30
WNW
20
NW
15
NNW
15
NNW
10
NNW
10
NNW
10
WNW
20
W
25
WNW
20
NNW
15
NNW
Wind State (?)
onshore
cross-onshore
cross-shore
cross-offshore
offshore
glassy
cross-
on
cross-
off
cross-
off
crosscross-
on
crosscross-
off
cross-
off
offoffcross-
off
cross-
off
cross-
off
cross-
off
cross-
off
cross-
off
offoffoffcrosscrosscross-
off
cross-
off
cross-
off
High Tide
/ height (m)
Low Tide
/ height (m)
Sunday
12
Monday
13
Tuesday
14
Sunrise--6:31-------6:31-------6:30-----
Sunset-----7:29-------7:30-------7:30--
light rain
rain showers
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
part cloud
clear
part cloud
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
clear
part cloud
clear
clear
clear
Rain (mm)
21----------------------
Temp. °C15141317171613111091217191812101010121921191210
Feels °C (?)1413111413121098691212118777916161487
  • Map Icons:
  • Break
  • Live Wave Height (m)
  • Live Wind Speed (km/h)
  • Surf Rating (10 Max)
  • Ocean Swells (m)
  • Wind Speed (km/h)
Map placeholder

FREE! Surf-Forecast.com widget for your website

The surf report / weather widget below is available to embed on third party websites free of charge and provides a summary of our El Capitan surf forecast. Simply grab the html code snippet that we provide and paste it into your own site. You can choose your preferred language and metric/imperial units for the surf forecast feed to suit users of your site. Click here to get the code.


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