Bells Beach Alert Guide

Victoria, Australia · part of the Bells Beach spot guide

Bells is forecast-only in our system — the nearest buoy in our set is thousands of kilometres away, and the real forecasting runs off the Victorian coastal buoys and the models. The height below is an open-ocean reading; the offshore ridge focuses it, so the breaking face at the reef runs larger.

The forecaster's checklist

1. 1.Find a deep, tightly-wrapped Southern Ocean or Roaring Forties low through the Great Australian Bight or the sub-Antarctic latitudes, with a fetch aimed northeast at western Bass Strait.
2. 2.Give it two to four days of lead after peak generation, watching the Victoria coastal wave buoys and the models as the runs firm up.
3. 3.Gate the direction to the southwest core, roughly 195–235° — west of that is flat-faced, and a straight south favors the Rincon section over the Bowl.
4. 4.Insist on long period, 14 seconds and ideally over 16, so the swell feels the shelf and focuses onto the Bowl.
5. 5.Read the tell that the Bowl turns on as all four together: size, a southwest direction, long period, and a north-to-northwest offshore on a low-to-mid tide.

Local winds & tide

Best wind: N–NW offshore into the south-facing amphitheatre — from 290° to 20° (WNW–NNE).

Bells is tide-sensitive even though no tide series is modelled here: the Bowl favors a low-to-mid tide, while the inside Rincon section fills in and works better on a higher tide and smaller swell.

Dial it in