The Kill Devil Hills Surf Report Explained

Surf reports and surf forecasting can be very tricky business. This post was designed to help OBX visitors better understand not only the Kill Devil Hills Surf Report but also surf forecasting in the OBX in general.

If you’ve visited the OBX you know it can be a windy place. This is a great thing, but sometimes it is a big bummer when there is too much local wind. Umbrellas start flying and surf conditions can deteriorate. Wind, particularly wind blowing continuously in the same direction (also know as “fetch”), is what creates ridable waves. So if we can get incoming swell with ideal local winds a lot of surfers are gonna be very, very happy!

Surfline’s Weekly Kill Devil Hills Surf Report

Weekly Kill Devil Hills Surf Report via Surfline.com

The weekly KDH surf report above, by Surfline, is a full of great information and includes a summary of the predicted surf quality by Surfline surf forecasters. “Green” means good conditions, “Orange” means real good to excellent, and the “Light Blue” typically means poor conditions. Having surfed and lived near the beach for a long time, I will say, be careful with surf forecasts, the better dialed in a person is to the local conditions the more opportunity they will have to surf!

Daily Kill Devil Hills Surf Report

Example of a “Poor” Kill Devil Hills Surf Report

Thursday July 9th, 2020 is the best or most ideal surf day, but later this same week will be pretty good. A coastal tropical storm was developing off the Carolina coast and its wind will create and be producing waves for most of the East Coast and OBX though this weekend and into early next weekend.

What does WIND have to do with the Surf Report?

Wind has to do everything with understanding the surf report, anywhere! When a surfer gets a better feel for winds, both local winds and ocean winds, they can better prepare themselves for good looking wave conditions and be in position to “score” like CDizzle below:

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