- Forecast
- Maps
- Live
- Weather State
- Spot Information
El Capitan Surf Forecast
/ CAL – Santa Barbara (36 breaks) / California (404 breaks) /
Surf Forecasts:
El Capitan surfForecast / CAL – Santa Barbara / USA
48hr Weather and Surf, issued 4 am Saturday 18 Apr 2026 PDTForecast 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
14.6° C
(Which is 1.0°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 10AM is: 0.6m 14s primary swell from a South-southwest direction and 0.5m 6s secondary swell from a West-northwest direction (forecast issued at 04:00am April 18). The wind direction is predicted to be onshore.
| Time (PDT) & Date | Wave Height | Wave Period |
|---|---|---|
| Morning (18 Apr) | 2.5ft (0.8m) | 11s |
| Afternoon (18 Apr) | 2ft (0.6m) | 14s |
| Evening (18 Apr) | 2ft (0.6m) | 14s |
Table - waves today at El Capitan. (Swell directed towards the surf break)
Updates in hr min s Forecast update imminent
Saturday 18 | Sunday 19 | Monday 20 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 AM | 5 AM | 8 AM | 11 AM | 2 PM | 5 PM | 8 PM | 11 PM | 2 AM | 5 AM | 8 AM | 11 AM | 2 PM | 5 PM | 8 PM | 11 PM | 2 AM | 5 AM | 8 AM | 11 AM | 2 PM | 5 PM | 8 PM | 11 PM | |
Rating (10 max) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Swell Height Map |    |    |    | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Wave Height (m) & direction (?) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Period(s) (?) | 10 | 10 | 11 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 15 |
Wave (?)Graph  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 kJ (?) | 286 | 250 | 133 | 165 | 163 | 163 | 163 | 160 | 156 | 110 | 105 | 102 | 141 | 141 | 139 | 101 | 99 | 99 | 99 | 98 | 98 | 98 | 93 | 89 |
Wind (km/h) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wind State (?) onshore cross-onshore cross-shore cross-offshore offshore glassy | off | cross- off | glass | on | on | cross- on | glass | glass | glass | glass | glass | on | cross- on | cross- on | cross- off | glass | glass | glass | glass | on | on | on | glass | cross |
High Tide / height (m) | 11:31AM 1.61 | 10:45PM 2.33 | 12:34PM 1.51 | 11:27PM 2.30 | 1:49PM 1.43 | |||||||||||||||||||
Low Tide / height (m) | 5:08AM 0.12 | 4:26PM 0.92 | 6:01AM 0.09 | 5:03PM 1.04 | 7:00AM 0.11 | 5:46PM 1.16 | ||||||||||||||||||
Saturday 18 | Sunday 19 | Monday 20 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sunrise | - | - | 6:24 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6:24 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6:22 | - | - | - | - | - |
| Sunset | - | - | - | - | - | 7:34 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7:34 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7:35 | - | - |
 | |  | | | |  | | | |  |  | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Rain (mm) | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Temp. °C | 16 | 15 | 18 | 22 | 23 | 21 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 16 | 21 | 21 | 20 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 15 | 19 | 20 | 18 | 14 | 13 |
| Feels °C (?) | 13 | 12 | 16 | 19 | 19 | 19 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 13 | 10 |
- Map Icons:
Break
Live Wave Height (m)
Live Wind Speed (km/h)
Surf Rating (10 Max)
Ocean Swells (m)- Wind Speed (km/h)
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.
Nearest