What is Frontside?
Frontside ranks every surf spot near you on one map, so you know which one is worth the drive today.Free, no login. It scores every spot in an area from the same forecast, ranks them against each other, and says so in a sentence - instead of making you open ten spots one at a time and hold the comparison in your head.
What Frontside does, in one table
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What does it cost? | Nothing. No login, no premium tier, no forecast behind a paywall. |
| What does it show? | Every spot near you ranked for today and the week, with a one-line verdict, slot-by-slot scores, size, period, wind and tide. |
| Where does the forecast come from? | Open-Meteo marine and weather models, scored by Frontside's own model for each spot's shape, exposure and tide window. |
| Where does it work? | Portugal, Southern California, Oahu, Bali, Sri Lanka, Israel and Ireland today - roughly 450 spots - with more regions as the model is trained for them. |
| Who is it for? | Anyone deciding where to paddle out - at home on a Tuesday or on a trip with a rental car and one free morning. |
How does the ranking work?
Every spot has a profile: which way it faces, which swell direction suits it, which winds blow offshore, how much size it holds, and which tide it wants. The forecast for each slot of the day is scored against that profile, so the same swell can be rated good at a sheltered reef and poor at the exposed beach next to it.
The day's score is the average of its slots, the way the app rates it, and the spots in an area are ranked by that. The verdict sentence names the best one and its numbers, and says plainly when nothing is worth the drive - that version is the one people come back for.
Why compare instead of forecast?
Because a forecast for one spot answers the wrong question. Surfers do not want to know whether Carcavelos is good; they want to know whether Carcavelos is better than Costa da Caparica today, and from Lisbon they lie in opposite directions. Most forecast apps show one spot at a time and leave that comparison to you.
Frontside starts from the comparison. The map shows every spot near you with its rating, the list ranks them, and each one opens to its own slot-by-slot day. The pages you can read without the app - surf in Ericeira today, the best spots in Bali - are the same ranking written down.
How accurate is it?
We measure it rather than claim it, and the numbers are published at /accuracy. On 324 live calls by surf instructors at 49 spots in Bali, Portugal, California and Hawaii in one month of autumn 2026, Frontside matched the instructor's call 81% of the time, against 64% for Surfline on the same calls. The per-spot table, losses included, follows once the full set is exported.
Who makes it?
A small team of surfers who were tired of ten open tabs. Frontside is built in the open, the spot data is corrected from local knowledge as it comes in, and every page says when its forecast was generated and where the numbers came from.
Common questions
Is Frontside free?
Yes, entirely. No login, no premium forecast, no trial. The full forecast for every spot is on the page.
Does Frontside have surf cams?
Where a public camera exists for a spot, the app links to it. Frontside does not run its own camera network.
Which regions does Frontside cover?
Portugal, Southern California, Oahu, Bali, Sri Lanka, Israel and Ireland, about 450 spots. More regions are added as the model is trained for them.
Where does the forecast data come from?
Open-Meteo's marine and weather models, scored by Frontside's own model for each spot. Every page names its source and the time it was generated.
Can I use Frontside on a surf trip?
That is what it is for. Pick a region, see every spot ranked for the week, and open the best day's map.
Last updated 2026-10-21.