California

Capitola Beach

California's most accessible public beach for shark teeth. Winter surf and cliff erosion rework Purisima and Santa Margarita material into the gravel.

⚠ Partial inputs

today

Fair

3.1ft swing · neap tide · low 10:02 AM · 4.2ft swell · +6 event boost

Today at a glance

Updated 2026-07-21T08:44:04.622Z

Workable but not ideal. Best window opens around the 10:02 AM low (2.0 ft). Light S winds (3 mph) — calm surface, easy spotting; seas 4 ft+ — murky and choppy.

Heads up: 4 ft seas — visibility will be poor; consider another day.

Next 3 days: Thu is the pick (59); today runs cooler at 41.

Best Window Today

10:02 AM

Plan around the fair low-tide window. 3.1ft swing · neap tide · low 10:02 AM · 4.2ft swell · +6 event boost.

Hunt score

Fair

Astronomical low

2.0 ft

10:02 AM

Predicted real low

1.9 ft

Near NOAA prediction

Low-window wind

0 mph

Light — negligible effect

Tides: NOAA Santa Cruz, CA (station 9413745)

Best window this week

Mon, Jul 27 · 3:14 PM

6.0ft swing · low 3:14 PM · 4.5ft swell · +6 event boost

Score

Prime

Confidence: Partial — noaa tide station, on-site outcomes. Hover the badge above for the input-by-input breakdown.

Tonight's moon

First quarter

49% illuminated

Sunrise 1:05 PM · Sunset 3:25 AM

Wind right now

3 mph from S

Gusts 4 mph · best from W

Light wind — minimal effect on the tide line either way.

Past 7 days

Compare model output to your actual visits.

Next 7 days

Plan a trip →

Tide times: NOAA CO-OPS station 9413745 (Santa Cruz, CA) — local time, MLLW datum. Click to verify on NOAA. Cards show LOWS only (best for hunting); highs are visible on the tide curve below.

🌤️ Weather & Wave Forecast

Impact on visibility and stir-up over the next 5 days.

Onshore Wind: Pushes water in (tide sits higher) and stirs up the bottom. Good for "new" teeth, bad for visibility.

Offshore Wind: Water blown out (tide sits lower). Maximum beach exposure for hunting the low tide line.

Why today scores 41

The Hunt Score blends tide range, lunar phase, daylight timing, recent stir, wind setup, and surf.

Wave height 4.2 ft

Best low

10:02 AM at 2.0 ft

Predicted real low

1.9 ft

Wind deviation

More beach by 0.0 ft

Explain this scoreShow breakdown ▾

💡

Analysis

Fair. Standard conditions — go for the volume hunt.

Tide range

25.8 / 50

Today's swing is 3.1 ft (saturates at 6 ft = 50 pts).

Spring tide

1.8 / 15

Within ±2 days of a new or full moon = wider swing.

Daylight timing

1.5 / 15

Low in daylight = you can actually hunt.

Recent stir

0.7 / 10

Past 72h onshore wind churn (only counts hours that already happened).

Wind setup at low

0.1 / 10

Forecast wind drains 0.0 ft of water around the low.

Surf bonus

5.0 / 5

1–4 ft of recent surf = clean sorting; >7 ft = unfishable.

Recent rainfall

0.0 / 3

No measurable rain in the past 48h — no runoff signal.

Storm multipliermultiplier

1.00×

Peak gust 11 mph — below 25 mph threshold, no boost applied.

Event boostadded

Manual + auto events (storms, drought, beach renourishment).

Why not higher? The biggest unused headroom today is tide range (+24.2 pts available). A day with that maxed out would score around 65.

Show the math

components: 25.8 + 1.8 + 1.5 + 0.7 + 0.1 + 5.0 + 0.0 = 35.0 + event boost +6 = 41.0 final = 41

What's NOT in this score

We are deliberate about which factors to include. These are not currently in the model:

Hunt pressure. A “hunts this week” chip is shown on each location page for transparency, but it does not change the score yet. We need more outcomes per site before a penalty would be statistically meaningful.
Wave period / swell direction. We use wave height only. Long-period groundswell sorts material differently than short wind chop, but Open-Meteo doesn't expose period reliably.
Barometric pressure trend. Falling pressure = approaching storm = building stir. Currently we wait for the wind to actually arrive.
Water temperature, clarity, salinity. Affects comfort but not (directly) what teeth wash up.
Weekday vs weekend. A 70 on Tuesday is often better in practice than a 70 on Saturday because of crowds, but we don't adjust for that.
Beach renourishment. Fresh sand buries everything. We capture this only when an admin logs a manual event — there's no auto-detection.

If you think we should add one of these, log a hunt with notes — every rated outcome helps us decide which signals actually predict tooth count.

Hunt Score

Sum of components + 6 event boost, clamped 0–100.

Score model 2026.04.29 · how this is calculated

Hunted here today?

Rate this hunt

We predicted 41. Tell us how it actually went — your rating calibrates the model.

model 2026.04.29

Reading the last 14 days of hunt logs…

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Geology

FormationsPurisima Formation, Santa Margarita Sandstone

EpochsMiocene, Pliocene

Age~10-3 million years

Star speciesOtodus megalodon (rare)

Technique

Search gravelly patches and storm-thrown shell lines at very low tide, especially after heavy winter swell strips the sand.

Access

Public town beach and nearby Santa Cruz County beach accesses; easy walk-on access with town amenities close by.

🗺 Open in Google Maps 🧭 Open in Apple Maps

Legality & ethics

Surface collecting on the public beach is generally allowed. Do not hammer cliffs or remove material from protected bluff faces.

Hazards

Powerful winter surf
Crowds on warm weekends
Unstable sea cliffs after rain

Insider tips

Winter is everything here — calm summer sand cover can make the beach look empty
Look where coarse black gravel collects at the ends of tide cuts
Small makos and sand tigers are more common than giant teeth; adjust your search image