How this is made

How this is made

Official One person writes and publishes this: Samuel Tait. It is not an organisation, it carries no advertising, and nobody pays for placement on it.from the publisher's own statement, reviewed 23 September 2026, valid to Thu 23 Sep 2027.

Official It rebuilds twice a day and reads five public sources: the Bureau of Meteorology for observations, tides and tidal streams; Open-Meteo for forecast model data; EPA Victoria's Beach Report for water quality; the Country Fire Authority for fire danger and total fire bans; and OpenStreetMap coastline geometry for which way each beach faces.from the five feeds this build reads, each named and linked at the foot of every page, valid to Thu 23 Sep 2027.

Official The ordering is arithmetic, not a score. Each beach has a measured bearing, and the wind is resolved onto it to give how many knots actually reach that sand, negative when the wind blows off it. Beaches are grouped into five-knot bands and ordered within a band by how much of today's swell arrives straight in. There is no weighting anyone has to trust.from the ranking method in this build and the 17 measured beach bearings it reads, valid to Thu 23 Sep 2027.

Official Every number carries one of four labels and there is no fifth. Official means a named authority published it. Measured means an instrument read it. Forecast means a model computed it. Not available means nothing usable arrived, and the reason is printed instead of a dash.from the four-value basis scale, enforced where every claim on this site is constructed, valid to Thu 23 Sep 2027.

Official Nothing is ever shown as zero because it was missing. A gust nobody reported is not a calm day, and the two are different sentences here.from the absence rule applied to every value this build renders, valid to Thu 23 Sep 2027.

Official It will not tell you whether a business is open right now, whether a golf course has carts out, or whether a competition is on. Those need a phone call, and this page does not make one.from the three questions this build declines to answer about any venue, valid to Thu 23 Sep 2027.

Official For the water it is not a substitute for the Bureau, the harbourmaster, or your own judgement. People have died at the Heads. The tidal stream times here are predictions, published so you can check them against your own almanac rather than instead of it.from the safety statement carried on the Rip route, valid to Thu 23 Sep 2027.

Official When a reading is too old to rely on it is withdrawn and says so, rather than being shown with an old timestamp beside it. If the date at the foot of a page is not today, that page did not rebuild and should not be used for the water.from the maximum serving age this build applies to each class of claim, valid to Thu 23 Sep 2027.

Official It used to publish its own forecast error, measured against the Bureau's observations. That stopped on 23 October 2026, because the Bureau's terms do not allow its observations to be republished. The first screen links to the live reading at South Channel Island instead, so you can check the forecast against a real instrument yourself.from the owner's decision of 23 October 2026 on Bureau of Meteorology data, valid to Thu 23 Sep 2027.