Today — right on the edge — wave, wind and surge pounding.
Sources & confidence
Compiled by the spearo sea-state engine · How it works →
The verdict comes from seven water factors and hard safety gates — not ten tabs. Go or stay.
Our own model
Our own forecast engine — not a third-party widget. It weighs these water factors into one go-or-stay verdict for this coast; the 0–10 dial is that verdict, read out as a number.
Safety gates
It all folds into a single 0–10 score and one verdict: go or stay.
A forecast, not a guarantee — the sea has the last word.
Where to get in, where to hunt
Wind, wave and the swell windows — when to go and the best hours.
The day is picked above, in the hero. Here are that day's windows, the hour-by-hour map and the trends. Tap a window to break down the conditions.
Leave your email — and the moment a window opens at Timaru, we'll send the go / no-go verdict. Email is all we need.
Every covered town has its own live forecast, cameras and entry points. Choose where you're diving.
What's missing? Tell us what you'd like to see — new spots, species, data or features. We read everything.
Visibility and what drives it — post-storm clearing, river plume, temperature and the thermocline.
spearo.app folds wind, wave, swell period, visibility, tides, water temperature and risk into a single verdict — go to the spot or not. It computes 7 days ahead from open marine models (Open-Meteo, IPMA), with no sign-up and no accounts. Built for solo spearfishing off the rocks, where any mistake costs dearly.
Now live: 1391 spots across 205 stretches of coast — mainland Portugal, Madeira and the Azores.
See all spotsRelief and bottom type, tides, and the depths of each spot.
The models set the window. Whether you go in is read only at the water: count the sets, watch the surge on the entry. If in doubt, you don't get in.
Scouted entries, coloured by today. The colour is the sea state at the spot, not a guarantee: the wash and a slippery entry you judge on site.
Open the seafloor mapVolcanic rock and kelp on the open coast a kilometre south of Timaru's port, taken 150 m off the point. The frontage measures 99° with a resolution of 0.91, so the exposure here is not a guess: south-east swell wraps straight in. Blue cod, butterfish and moki; the water is cold all year and greens up after the rivers run.
Google MapsReef point 5 km south of Timaru with a seal colony on the rocks — which is also why the shark note on this page is not decorative. Cold, exposed, blue cod and butterfish.
Google MapsSOLO is the biggest risk: underwater you can black out from lack of oxygen silently and fatally, with no one around. Solo is never truly «safe». Below are the best weather windows; carry a buoy, tell someone your plan and exit time, and any doubt — don't go.
Cameras, map and reference — to hand as you come up.
Check the cam BEFORE you leave. Foam, brown/green murk, or waves washing the entry rocks = No-go. At night/in fog the cam is useless — treat it as «unknown», NOT «green».
Timaru has rock entry points such as Pātītī Point and Tūhawaiki Point (Jacks Point). South Canterbury's port town on an east-facing coast with almost no natural shelter: Caroline Bay only exists because the moles were built. Below you'll find each spot (access, shelter and hazards) and today's forecast.
Summer (Dec–Apr) — cold; best in the sheltered bays of Banks Peninsula.
Summer 12–16 °C — 7 mm suit; cold.
Hard: cold; only in the peninsula's sheltered bays.
No — New Zealand has no recreational sea-fishing licence, so anyone may spearfish at Timaru; MPI's size, bag and gear rules still apply and they are regional (the combined finfish daily limit is 20). Crayfish and pāua are free-dive only — taking them on scuba is banned nationwide — spearfishing is banned inside every marine reserve, and mātaitai, taiāpure and rāhui must be respected. See the guide.
SpainRules change and are regional. Before heading out, check with MPI (regional fishing rules / the NZ Fishing Rules app), DOC (marine reserves) and local notices (rāhui/mātaitai).
Portugal
