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Lowcountry Surf Report

This coast faces south-south-east and sits behind a shelf so wide and shallow that most swell is spent before it arrives. Nine hours in ten carry no period worth the name. The surf here is real, and it is rare, and this page is about telling the difference.

Reading the water…

Seven beaches, live from Open-Meteo.

Height is the wrong number

Why the seconds decide it

Every surf feed on the internet will tell you this coast is two feet. It usually is. What none of them tell you is how long it takes each of those two feet to arrive, and that is the whole difference between a session and a wasted drive.

A wave’s period is the gap between one crest and the next. Long-period swell has travelled — made by a storm hundreds of miles out, organised on the way in, and it stands up when it feels the bottom. Short-period chop was made by the wind still blowing on it. It arrives disorganised, breaks all at once, and closes out.

Three feet at eleven seconds is a session. Three feet at four seconds is a windy afternoon.

Wind chop, under 6 s, 55.3 per cent of hoursShort windswell, 6 – 8 s, 33.6 per cent of hoursGroundswell, 8 – 10 s, 9.4 per cent of hoursLong period, 10 – 12 s, 1.6 per cent of hoursRare, 12 s and up, 0.2 per cent of hours
under 6 sWind chop55.3%6 – 8 sShort windswell33.6%8 s and upWorth the drive11.1%

That last eleven per cent, opened up

8 – 10 sGroundswell9.4% of all hours10 – 12 sLong period1.6% of all hours12 s and upRare0.2% of all hours

Three years of hindcast at Folly. Share of all hours, by swell period.

The coast right now

Tap a beach to follow it below

On Worth a look Windswell Blown out Wrong direction Big Flat

The bar is what the wind is doing to the face. Full means offshore or glassy, holding the wave up; empty means onshore, pulling it apart before it reaches a bank. It is the exact inverse of what the kite page wants.

Where the window is

Seven days · hour by hour, then block by block

Clears the gate Worth a look Under eight seconds Big Two feet Period12 s
Read the numbers

When it actually happens

Three years at Folly, by month

Days clearing two feet at nine seconds at Folly Beach, by month, summed over three years. August six, September eight, October six, December three, March one, and nothing at all in the other seven months.48JanFeb1MarAprMayJunJul6Aug8Sep6OctNov3DecHurricane seasonNor’easter
Days clearing two feet at nine seconds at Folly, summed over three years.
Every beach, every gate
Days a year clearing each gate. A day counts only if it holds three or more qualifying hours.
Beach2 ft / 8 s2 ft / 9 s2 ft / 10 s2 ft / 11 s
Folly Beach19844
Isle of Palms231043
Sullivan’s Island19943
Hunting Island241153
Hilton Head14643
Tybee Island18930.3

Three years of hindcast at Folly, and the days that cleared two feet at nine seconds fell like this. Twenty-three of the twenty-four landed in August, September, October or December. Seven months of the year produced nothing at all.

That is the argument for an alert rather than a bookmark. There is no point checking this page in May.

What the buoys say

Measured, not modelled

Everything above is a model. These two are instruments, moored forty-odd miles out where the swell has not yet crossed the shelf that flattens it. When a buoy reads a longer period than the beach does, that gap is the shelf doing its work — and it is the clearest picture you will get of why this coast behaves the way it does.

Tide

Charleston coast · the next three days

Low water opens the bars up. High water is when Folly’s mid-beach groins go under.

The breaks

What each one needs, and what it asks of you

Folly is the surf town and the Washout is the wave. Everything else on this list is a sandbar that works when the sand is in the right place, which is not a criticism — it is what a barrier-island coast is. Where a beach has rules, they are here, because they are enforced.

Folly Beach

The Washout

Folly Beach, east end

Folly’s main break. It works best mid to high tide, with north or north-west winds grooming the face; a south-east leaning swell and a north-west wind is the classic combination here. Intermediates and up, or a confident beginner who has had a lesson.

Access

It sits outside the summer swimming zone, so the seasonal hours do not apply. A surf leash is required at all times of the year.

Hazard

Expect heavier currents and more push than most other sandbars on the island.

10th Street East

Folly Beach

Usually a notch mellower than the Washout on a north-east swell, and it handles a south swell well. All levels, and the place a progressing beginner should be. Folly’s banks often feel best around the mid-tide push.

Folly Pier

Either side, outside the buffer

It can line up for longer rides on either side of the pier in a low-to-mid tide window, with some east in the swell and a touch of north in the wind.

Access

Surfing is prohibited within 200 feet of any fishing pier, year-round, with no seasonal exception. Charleston County Parks posts it at the pier.

The rest of the coast

Isle of Palms

The pier and 35th Street

The pier and Windjammer end has wide sandbars that favour a longboard, and the north side has the better peak — it is often fairly crowded with locals. 35th Street is an exposed sandbar break, best with a north-west wind and a south-east swell.

Hunting Island

State park, north or south end

It clears the nine-second gate more often than anywhere else on this list — eleven days a year against Folly’s eight — because it faces further east and sits further out. Fifteen miles out Highway 21, inside a state park.

Access

Park hours and admission apply, so check the gate times before making the drive.

Hazard

The park designates no swimming area and posts no lifeguards, and there is no surf shop or local crew here to ask. Nobody is watching if it goes wrong.

Hilton Head

The island beaches

Measurably the quietest beach on this list: six days a year at the nine-second gate, against Folly’s eight and Hunting Island’s eleven. It is tucked behind Port Royal Sound and faces further south, and the numbers show it.

Tybee Island

Designated areas only

Georgia has very little rideable coast and Tybee is most of it. It clears the eleven-second gate about once every three years, the least of any beach here.

Access

Surfboards are permitted only in areas designated for the purpose, and a leash is required at all times. The city does not publish where those designated areas are — ask at the lifeguard stand before you paddle out.

Sullivan’s Island is on the board above, because the model answers for it the same as anywhere else. There is no entry for it here: we have no sourced account of how it breaks, and guessing at one is how a surf guide starts being wrong about a beach.

Look at it yourself

The WashoutLive stream

The WashoutFolly’s main break, from the east end. The one to check before you commit to the drive.

The Surfers View ↗
Sullivan’s IslandLive stream

Sullivan’s IslandStation 28.5, looking down the beach. Count the lines before you count the cars.

The Surfers View ↗
Folly Beach, at the pierThis camera publishes no still frame

Folly Beach, at the pierLooking down the beach from the pier end.

SurfChex ↗

Stills refresh while this page is open. The cameras belong to the businesses and networks credited on each one — go and watch them there for the full frame. A frame that will not load here is still running at the source.

We’ll tell you the handful of times it’s worth it.

Pick your beaches and how picky you are. Nine seconds fires about eight days a year; eleven, about four. We would rather send you four texts a year you act on than a hundred you learn to ignore.

Nothing goes out yet. We’re recording who wants alerts before switching delivery on, so joining now is what turns it on — there is no welcome message coming.

What one looks like

It is breaking at The Washout 3.5 ft at 10 seconds, ESE at The Washout. Wind NW 6 kt.

Only tell me above

Measured over three years at Folly, counting only days that hold three or more qualifying hours.

Which beaches
How should we reach you

When it’s flat

Which is most days

A foot and a half of anything is a better first lesson than head-high will ever be, and the schools here run all season — the small days are the ones you learn on. If you want to be pulled along by something regardless of what the ocean is doing, the cable park on Johns Island runs all season too.

Boards, wax and lessons

The shops that actually stock it

Swell, wind and tide from Open-Meteo, pulled fresh each time this page loads. Buoy readings from NOAA’s National Data Buoy Center. The frequency figures come from three years of Open-Meteo’s marine hindcast at roughly 16 km resolution — right about the difference between a six-second day and a ten-second one, and not authoritative about the size of the wave on any particular sandbar.
All of it is a forecast, not a promise. Know your bank, watch the rips, and don’t paddle out alone on a big day.

Beach descriptions from visitfolly.com, American Surf Magazine and the City of Tybee Island. Access rules from City of Folly Beach Code § 151.05, Tybee Island Code of Ordinances chapter 12, Charleston County Parks for the pier, and South Carolina State Parks for Hunting Island. Cameras belong to the operators credited on each frame.