Terms of use
Effective 2 September 2026 · applies to the Swell Signal app and to swell-signal.com
Read this one
Swell Signal is a forecast. It is not a navigation aid, not a safety system and not a substitute for looking at the water. Ship wakes are made by working vessels carrying people and cargo, in shipping lanes, in cold water, on a schedule that is not yours.
A prediction can be early, late, wrong, or absent for a wave that arrives anyway. The vessel-traffic and weather feeds it reads can be delayed or offline without warning. You are responsible for your own safety, for keeping clear of vessels and their traffic lanes, and for obeying every applicable navigation rule and local regulation. If the two disagree, the water wins.
Using the service
Use it for your own riding and forecasting. Do not use it to interfere with, approach or obstruct a vessel. Do not scrape it, resell its output, or hammer the API in a way that degrades it for other people. Do not attempt to reach another person's account, pins or screens.
Access may be rate-limited or withdrawn if a use is harming the service or another user.
Accounts
An account is optional and free. You are responsible for keeping your password to yourself. Content you submit — a handle, a wave report, a comment — is yours; by posting it you allow it to be displayed in the app and used, in aggregate, to calibrate the wave physics. Anything abusive, or aimed at another person, may be removed.
You can delete your account at any time from Settings → Account. That removes the account and the content attached to it.
Price
The app is free today. If a paid tier is introduced later, the features you already rely on will not be taken away without notice, and any subscription will be sold through the App Store or Google Play, billed by them, and cancellable there.
Data sources
Tides and currents come from NOAA, ferry sailings from WSDOT, and vessel positions from a commercial AIS feed. Those are their data, published under their own terms, and their accuracy and availability are not something Swell Signal controls. NOAA tide predictions are predictions: actual water level varies with weather.
Availability
The service is provided as it is, with no promise of uptime, accuracy or fitness for any particular purpose, to the fullest extent the law allows. It runs on modest hardware and it can go down. To the extent permitted by law, Swell Signal is not liable for any injury, loss or damage arising from use of the service or from reliance on a forecast.
Nothing here limits a liability that cannot lawfully be limited.
Changes
These terms can change; the effective date at the top moves when they do. Continuing to use the service after a change means accepting it.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Washington, USA.