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We use satellite-derived bathymetry from the shoreline, supplemented by EMODnet and GEBCO with regional refinements where higher-resolution surveys exist publicly — resampled to a uniform 10 m horizontal grid per location, with vertical resolution of roughly 10 cm out to ~40 m depth.

10 m horizontal is the sweet spot. Higher resolution would chase noise from the satellite source; lower resolution would miss the focusing features (sandbars, reefs, headland-induced refraction zones) that decide whether a wave breaks cleanly at the location or closes out 30 m to the north. The bathymetric mesh is regenerated whenever new source data lands; in practice that’s annual for most locations, faster where regional surveys publish more often.

The boundary spectrum is the open-ocean wave field measured (and modelled forward) at the deep-water edge of every location. It’s a 2D distribution: how much wave energy is arriving from each of 24 directions, at each of 30 frequencies (wave periods). A 4-foot SW swell with a 14 s period reads as a peak at one (direction, frequency) bin; mixed sea states light up multiple bins simultaneously.

ShorSense™ then runs spectral wave equations across the bathymetric mesh, computing four physical mechanisms that transform the incoming spectrum:

• Refraction — depth-induced bending. Waves slow down as they reach shallower water, and the part of a wave still in deep water keeps moving faster — the wavefront pivots to align more parallel to the bathymetric contours.
• Shoaling — depth-induced amplification. As wave energy compresses into shallower depth, the wave height grows. That’s why a 4 ft offshore swell can break at 6 ft on the bar.
• Focusing — bathymetric features (canyons, ridges, reefs) act as lenses. The same boundary spectrum produces a wider variation in location conditions than you would intuit, because the seabed concentrates energy in some locations and disperses it in others.
• Dissipation and breaking — at some point wave height exceeds what the local depth supports and the wave breaks. The model computes where + how + with what residual energy, producing both the wave you ride and the whitewater behind it.

The output of the nearshore propagation is a per-cell wave field: significant wave height, peak period, peak direction, breaking probability — at every grid cell within the location, refreshed every hour. Wind and tide are layered in at the same resolution.

The result is not a generic offshore reading applied to a pin on a map. It is the specific wave that breaks on that bar, at that state of tide, with that wind direction — modelled from the physics of the seabed and coast, not approximated from regional averages.

Every location in the ShorSense™ fleet runs this pipeline independently. A location 500 m along the coast from another can have completely different conditions if the headland or reef geometry diverges — and ShorSense™ captures that.

The same physical conditions produce wildly different experiences across sports. A 25-knot wind that scores 90 for Kite Surfing scores 10 for Paddleboarding. A clean 6-foot period-14 swell that scores 95 for an advanced surfer scores 15 for a beginner. ShorSense™ handles this with a 10 × 4 matrix:

• 10 sport models — Surfing, Windsurfing, Kite Surfing, Kite Foiling, Wing Foiling, E-Foiling, Paddleboarding, Swimming, Kayaking, Canoeing. Each weights wave height, wave period, wind speed, wind direction (relative to shore-normal), and tide differently. A surf score weights wave components heavily; a kitesurf score weights wind. Same conditions, different scores.
• 4 ability tiers — beginner, intermediate, advanced, expert. Each tier shifts the optimal range for each component. A beginner surfer wants 2-3 ft, 10 s period, light offshore. An expert wants 6-8 ft, 14 s period, and the wind matters less because they can ride through chop. Same sport, different scores.

The composite is a 0-100 score with a 7-tier label (Don’t Bother → Poor → Okay → Good → Very Good → Outstanding → Epic) and a fine-grain colour ramp for the heatmap. We calibrate the model against ridden sessions across the location fleet — reading 70+ at your sport and ability means the conditions overlap your range.

Reading 20 means do not go in the water.