A New Look for Swell Intel
If Swell Intel looks different today, that's because it is. We rebuilt the site's design from the ground up, and the same refresh is rolling out to the iPhone app. Here's what changed and why.
Light and dark themes
Swell Intel now defaults to a clean, bright look built for checking the forecast in daylight — on the beach, in the parking lot, at your desk. Prefer the old dark feel? Dark mode is one tap away, or set it to follow your device and it will switch automatically. You'll find the appearance control in your account settings on the web and in the app.
A clearer rating scale
Surf ratings now use a single graded color ramp instead of the old traffic-light palette. Poor conditions sit at the muted end and the scale builds steadily toward vivid teal-green as conditions improve, so a glance at any chart, card, or map pin tells you not just good-or-bad but how good. The rating labels themselves — Poor through Very Good — are unchanged.
Redesigned charts
The forecast charts got the biggest overhaul:
- A live conditions readout. Every chart now carries a readout bar showing the day, hour, rating, breaking wave height, swell, and wind for the moment you're looking at. On desktop, move your cursor across the chart. On your phone, slide the chart with your thumb and the needle reads the hour underneath it — the same interaction as the app.
- Five days at a glance. Charts fit five days across your screen, with the rest of the forecast a swipe away.
- Swell components in their own colors. The swell chart's readout shows each swell train — primary, secondary, wind waves — in the color of its curve, so you can untangle overlapping swells at a glance.
Live buoy, every swell in the water
The live buoy card on each spot page now breaks the buoy's raw spectral reading into every wave train it can resolve — not just a single number. Tap the card and you might find a long-period groundswell hiding under wind chop, or a secondary mid-period swell the summary reading never showed. It's the closest thing to standing on the beach without a camera.
One height, everywhere
Breaking wave heights now come from a single source of truth on our servers, so the number you see on the chart, the daily forecast cards, the best-window callout, and the app always agree. Daily cards show the day's typical surfable range — the same bands you'll find on the hourly chart.
Same forecast engine
None of this changes the forecasting itself. The SWAN coastal modeling, buoy verification, and rating engine that power Swell Intel are untouched — this update is about making that data faster to read and easier to live with, morning after morning.
Spotted something off with the new design? Tell us — we read everything.