Support
Last updated 18 September 2026
Most of the questions we get are about missing data. Usually the answer is that there just isn't a buoy close to you. When that happens, the app tells you instead of making up a number.
Tell us your spot (or ZIP code), what you expected to see, and what you actually saw. A screenshot helps a lot.
Common questions
Why does my spot say there's no wave buoy nearby?
Because there probably isn't one. Buoy coverage is patchy. Along parts of the Gulf coast, the closest buoy that measures waves is more than 300 miles away. The app only uses stations that are reporting right now. If it can't find one, it says so. We'd rather do that than show you a reading from hundreds of miles away and pretend it's your beach.
Why does it say the wind is offshore when it feels onshore?
The app decides whether wind is offshore by comparing it to the direction your beach faces, which it works out from real coastline data. On a curved bay that direction changes as you walk along the sand. The two ends of the same beach can face 60 degrees or more apart. If it looks wrong for where you surf, you can set the direction yourself: open the spot, tap the shore direction, and drag it. Whatever you set by hand always wins over the calculated value.
The swell arrival time looks off.
Swell energy travels at about half the speed of the wave crests you can see, so the app uses that slower speed to estimate when a swell will arrive. It also counts from the time the buoy took its reading, not from right now. NDBC buoys report every 30 to 60 minutes, so a reading can easily be half an hour old by the time you see it. The app shows when the reading was taken next to the estimate.
A buoy reading looks obviously wrong.
It might be. Sensors get fouled or iced up, and when that happens they usually keep sending bad numbers instead of going quiet. The app checks each buoy against the ones around it and flags readings that don't match. If you see that warning, be skeptical of the number. The app won't swap in a guess for it.
Does it work without a signal?
Partly. Tides, sunrise and sunset, and the direction your beach faces are all worked out on your phone from data that comes with the app, so those still work with no signal. Live buoy readings and forecasts need a connection, but the last ones you loaded stay on screen, and the app shows how old they are.
Why does it want my location?
Just to find the buoys, tide station and forecast closest to you. You can say no and type a place or ZIP code instead, and you won't lose any features. The privacy policy lists exactly what gets sent and where.
Reporting a problem
Bad data at a particular spot is the most useful thing you can report. It usually means the app picked the wrong station, and that tends to affect a whole stretch of coast, not just one beach. Please include:
- the spot name or ZIP code,
- what the app showed and what you think it should have shown,
- roughly when you looked.
Where the data comes from
Swell Scout reads public data. Buoy readings come from NDBC, tides from NOAA CO-OPS, forecasts from the National Weather Service and Open-Meteo, and the coastline from Natural Earth. We're not affiliated with any of them.