The Cove Surf Report & Ideal Conditions

Live NOAA data · Updated 2026-07-16
As of the latest buoy reading (2026-07-16 10:56 UTC), The Cove is off: the live 0–2 ft short-period swell from the SE is off its ideal S direction and is under its usual size, and the wind is light from the E. The Cove is most often good on a 2–4 ft medium-period (8–16s) swell from the S, with glassy / no wind from the SE, on a high incoming tide — the conditions LazySurfer surfers have logged and rated highest here.

See your personalized forecast for The Cove

Download LazySurfer free and get surf-quality ratings tuned to the way you surf — learned from your own logged sessions.

Download LazySurfer →

Best conditions for The Cove

The Cove is most often good on a 2–4 ft medium-period (8–16s) swell from the S, with glassy / no wind from the SE, on a high incoming tide — the conditions LazySurfer surfers have logged and rated highest here.

Ideal wave height2–4 ft
Ideal periodmedium-period (8–16s)
Best swell directionS
Best windglassy / no wind from the SE
Best tidehigh & incoming

These best-conditions estimates come from real sessions LazySurfer users rated highly at this break — not an editorial guess (preliminary-confidence read). In the app, LazySurfer's custom deep-learning model predicts your own 1–5★ rating at about 90% exact-match accuracy (97.6% within one star). How LazySurfer works →

Current conditions

Latest reading from the nearest NOAA buoys (UTC 2026-07-16 10:56 UTC). LazySurfer reads this same public NDBC data directly — no proprietary smoothing. New to buoy data? See how to read a NOAA buoy.

Wave height1.6 ft
Dominant period8s
Swell directionSE (131°)
Wave buoyNDBC station 44084 (45 km away)
Wind3 kt from the E — NDBC CMAN4 (5 km away)

The Cove 7-day surf forecast

Model wave & wind outlook for The Cove from NOAA's GEFS-Wave model, refreshed daily. Heights are open-water swell (face heights at the break are typically larger).

DaySwell heightPeriod & directionWind
Thu Jul 161–2 ft5s SSE9 kt S
Fri Jul 171–2 ft5s SSE9 kt SSE
Sat Jul 181–4 ft6s SE16 kt S
Sun Jul 192–4 ft7s SSE23 kt WNW
Mon Jul 202–3 ft6s SE12 kt E
Tue Jul 212–4 ft5s SSE17 kt WSW
Wed Jul 222–4 ft7s SSE14 kt NNW

Tide

Predicted tide for the next two days from NOAA station 8536110 (Cape May, ferry terminal), the nearest tide station (5 km away). Times local.

The Cove tide chart for 2026-07-16 Predicted tide height in feet over two days, with high and low markers. 12a6a12p6p12a6a12p6p 5.1ft12:57a0.6ft7:18a4.1ft1:29p0.8ft7:20p4.9ft1:43a0.5ft8:03a4.3ft2:18p0.9ft8:15pNow0.55.1

Frequently asked

Is The Cove good for surfing right now?

As of the latest buoy reading (2026-07-16 10:56 UTC), The Cove is off: the live 0–2 ft short-period swell from the SE is off its ideal S direction and is under its usual size, and the wind is light from the E.

Where does LazySurfer's surf data for The Cove come from?

LazySurfer reads public data directly from NOAA's National Data Buoy Center and the National Weather Service — the nearest NDBC wave buoy (station 44084) and the nearest NOAA tide station (Cape May, ferry terminal). The same raw readings NOAA publishes, with no proprietary smoothing.

What are the best surf conditions for The Cove?

The Cove is most often good on a 2–4 ft medium-period (8–16s) swell from the S, with glassy / no wind from the SE, on a high incoming tide — the conditions LazySurfer surfers have logged and rated highest here.

Does LazySurfer predict whether The Cove is good for me?

Yes. LazySurfer trains a custom deep-learning model — a PyTorch neural network with per-user embeddings, retrained weekly on real logged surf sessions from the LazySurfer community — to predict the 1-to-5 star rating you personally would give, rather than a single average rating for everyone.

Nearby spots

Learn more: How LazySurfer works · Groundswell vs windswell · Surf period explained · Compare surf apps

← LazySurfer home  ·  App Store  ·  Google Play