How the Site Works

Every beach page shows a single number: how many feet of horizontal visibility you can expect underwater at that beach today. The number updates through the day as new data arrives. You will find it on each spot page at /locations/<state>/<region>/<beach>.

The number lands in 1 of 5 tiers, each with its own color:

Every forecast also carries a confidence label: High, Medium, or Low. High confidence shows a single committed number. Medium shows a tight range of about plus or minus 3 ft. Low shows the full calibrated range. A wider range means the inputs disagree more that day.

Forecasts for every beach generate around 6 AM Pacific each morning, with wind refreshes around 10 AM and 1 PM. The Southern California regions also get a re-forecast around 8 AM and again in the late afternoon and evening. The panel labeled Today’s forecast updates on each spot page shows the morning run and each refresh as it lands.

Beneath the number sit the contributing factor chips: plume and chlorophyll from satellite, swell, wind and chop, rain and runoff, and the beach’s baseline. Each chip says whether that factor helps or hurts visibility today. Hover over a chip to read the reasoning behind it.

If today’s update has not run yet, the page shows the last known number with an orange “As of” date stamp instead of pretending the data is fresh. A brand-new spot with no data at all shows a dash and “Forecast pending”.

What feeds the forecast: satellite chlorophyll from NOAA CoastWatch VIIRS imagery (readings around 1 mg per cubic meter and above mean green water), swell and wind from the Open-Meteo marine and weather models, rain and runoff, diver reports, and the Scripps Pier underwater camera, which anchors the mainland Southern California forecasts.

San Diego spot pages carry a second visibility section built from measurements taken today rather than a forecast. Bars fill in through the day from the Scripps Pier underwater camera, translated to each spot, interleaved with diver reports as they come in. A check mark means a human reviewed the cam reading; “auto estimate” means nobody has reviewed it yet. Slots with no measurement stay as blank outlines.

The position strip shows visibility by named zone under a labeled cross-section diagram: Break Zone, Post Break, and Open Water for surf beaches; Post Break and Open Water for reef and kelp spots. Visibility at the same beach genuinely differs by where you float. The Break Zone often reads about a third of what the Post Break zone reads, and Open Water is usually about the same as Post Break rather than clearer. This section is free for everyone.

Today’s forecast is free for everyone, on every beach. Days 2 through 7 are part of Ocean Oracle Pro. Each Pro day carries its own tier and range, so you can see which day of the week looks best before you plan around it.

Ocean Oracle Pro costs $5 a month or $50 a year, which works out to $4.17 a month. It unlocks the 7-day forecast on every beach, watchlists with the morning alert email, the full Dive Log, per-beach species intel, the Oracle section on the Coastal Bulletin, and an ad-free experience.

Subscribe from the Ocean Oracle page. Sign in first; checkout runs through Stripe. Manage or cancel any time from your account page under Manage subscription, which opens the Stripe billing portal.

Watchlists are a Pro feature. Create named lists of beaches at /watchlists or with the Save to Watchlist bookmark button on any spot page. You can opt into a single daily email that arrives around 9 AM Pacific when a watchlist beach is having an unusually good day today, or when the 7-day forecast sees one coming.

“Unusually good” is relative to each beach’s own normal. Today must reach the next visibility tier above the beach’s typical, which is its median over the last 30 days. An alert never fires below 11 ft, and today must beat the typical by at least 3 ft. A beach that already sits in the top tier needs 10 ft over its own normal. That is why a 78 ft day at a spot that is always 78 ft does not fire an alert, but a 15 ft day at a beach that usually runs 8 ft does.

Sign up free at /signup with Google, or with an email and a password of at least 8 characters. Members are called Nautilids. Your username is your public identity on the site; you can change it from your account page once every 30 days, and you can upload a profile picture there too.

If you forget your password, the sign-in page has a “Forgot password?” link that sends you a reset link by email. Your account page shows your profile, contribution stats, and subscription. Accounts are free; Pro is a subscription on top.

Any signed-in account can report a dive at /report-visibility. Pro is not required. Pick the beach, the date, the time of day, the visibility you actually got in feet, and where you were in the water (the position options match the beach type). Water depth is optional. Duplicate reports for the same beach, date, time, and position are rejected.

Reports appear in the San Diego measured-day chart, and reports from trusted reporters (hand-picked accounts) feed the calibration data that trains the algorithm. For everything else, /reports has feedback forms: report an inaccurate forecast, suggest a feature, or report a bug.

The Dive Log is Pro to write. Log a session with the spot, time, depth, minutes in the water, buddy, photos, notes, and your catches per species with length, weight, and the gun used. Each entry permanently freezes the forecast and conditions from that moment: visibility, swell, wind, water temp, and tide.

Personal bests get a gold stamp per species for longest and heaviest. Named guns earn XP for every fish, with bigger and rarer species earning more, and climb a tier every 10 levels, from Greenhorn to Poseidon’s Trident. The Life List lights up a collection card for every species you have landed. Stats, a personal dive map, and photo storage round it out.

Entries are private unless you share them. Shared entries appear on the public community feed, where any signed-in account can heart and comment.

The Coastal Bulletin lives on the front page and at /bulletin. It is a notice board of coastal events: hazard and advisory pins for surf, swell, king tides, water quality, red tide and algae blooms, storm runoff, season dates, grunion runs, and more, drawn from official sources, plus good-news pins when a region is running unusually clear.

Nautilid Reports add the community layer. Any signed-in account can post a sighting at /report-sighting for bioluminescence, red tide, jellyfish, sharks, or something else. When 2 independent reports describe the same bioluminescence, red tide, or jellyfish event on the same day, a community pin goes up, and a single report from a trusted reporter can raise one on its own. Shark reports never auto-pin, and the form says to call 911 and tell lifeguards first if someone is hurt.

Pro members see the Oracle section on top of the board: the best visibility on the board today, plus a strip of their watchlist beaches with the best day ahead.

The Ichthyopedia is the free species field guide. Filter by activity (Spearfishing, Snorkel and Scuba, Harvest), by biome, and by rarity (Common, Uncommon, Rare, Legendary).

Each species page carries an ID card, taxonomy, rarity and conservation status, regulations with the date the CDFW rules were last verified, seasonality, edibility and preparations for take species, where to find them, and a deep-dive essay. Difficulty scales run 1 to 5.

The biome guides are free illustrated guides to the habitats you dive in. There are 9 in all: 7 are live now, and the Coral Reef and Mangrove Forest guides arrive with future coverage. Every beach is tagged with its biomes, and each biome page lists its beaches with live visibility.

Nautical News is original ocean and diving reporting from the Nautical Nick newsroom, free to read. Most stories carry a locator map so you can see exactly where they happened.

Browse California, Oregon, or Washington for the region maps and beach cards with live visibility. Or use the search in the top navigation bar to jump to any page: beaches, regions, species, biomes, and news stories. Coverage today spans Southern and Central California, Oregon, and Washington.

Something broken, something wrong, or something you want to see added? Use the forms at /reports or email [email protected].

A last word before you get in the water: forecasts are estimates of a changing ocean, never a guarantee. Conditions change fast. Dive at your own risk, and judge the water with your own eyes before you commit.