How recommendations work

Three inputs, one matched spot

Every recommendation runs through the same three stages.

01

Filter by distance

We drop any spot further than your maximum travel time, so you're never sent somewhere impractical.

02

Score by conditions

Remaining spots are scored against your skill level, the wave size you're after, and your preferred time — swell, wind direction, and tide all factor in.

03

Match your gear

Board length, wax temperature band, and wetsuit thickness are worked out from your height, weight, skill, and the water temperature.

Data sources

Where the ocean data comes from

Wave4Me is built to run on free, open marine and weather data — no paywalled forecasts.

Open-Meteo Marine & Forecast APIs

Live swell height and period, wind speed and direction, and water temperature — fetched fresh for every recommendation, free and keyless.

Real wave buoys

When a real BOM or state-agency wave buoy is nearby and you're asking about right now, we use its actual measured swell height and period instead of a forecast — ground truth, not a model.

OpenStreetMap

Turns a typed location into coordinates so we can find and measure distance to nearby spots.

Swell, wind, and water temp are live. Tide is still a simulated estimate — no free API offers real tide predictions yet, so we haven't shipped that part live. Buoy verification only applies to "right now" — it can't inform a forecast for a future day.