Tide Basics
How to Read a Tide Chart
A simple guide to reading highs, lows, timing, and tide direction without the clutter.
Start with the highs and lows
A tide chart shows you when the water will be highest and lowest through the day. Most people should first look for the next high tide, the next low tide, and the time of each one.
That basic timing is enough to help with surf planning, fishing windows, launching a boat, walking a flat beach, or catching a shoreline at golden light.
Understand what happens between the peaks
The tide is not only about the exact high and low points. It is also about the movement between them. That is where incoming and outgoing tide direction matters.
An incoming tide can push water into inlets and over shallow bars. An outgoing tide can expose structure, tighten channels, and change the feel of a beach or break.
Use a simple app instead of over-reading the graph
The best tide tools help you answer practical questions quickly: what is the next tide, which way is it moving, and when will the next major change happen.
That is the approach behind Tide Buoy. It is designed to make tide planning readable at a glance.
Live tide charts
Read here. Plan in the app.
Live tide charts are available in the Tide Buoy iOS app. Web tide charts are coming soon.