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El Sunzal
El Salvador94
Hero
0.8mwave
Live prone foil conditions
The best prone foiling today
267 spots ranked for prone foiling. Small clean swell and glassy faces, updated every 3 hours.
Today's podium
Weather data from Open-Meteo, refreshed every 3 hours.
How the score works
Every spot gets a composite score out of 100 using a multiplicative penalty chain. The wave height base is multiplied by each factor, then safety-capped, then a dawn/dusk bonus is added.
Wave height0-100
Sweet spot is a small, clean peak of 0.8 to 1.2m. Below 0.3m is marginal. Above 2.5m is dangerous due to wipeout forces on the mast.
PeriodMultiplier
Foils extract energy from disorganised swell. Short-period wind swell loses only 16% vs 57% for surfing. Small groundswell bonus above 11s.
WindMultiplier
Foils ride above surface chop, so onshore wind barely matters. Only penalises above 15 km/h, and even then gently.
Tide safetyMultiplier
Low tide over shallow reef is dangerous for foils (mast strike risk). Reef, point, and beach breaks each have different risk profiles.
Frequently asked questions
How often is this updated?
Every 3 hours when the conditions cron runs. We pull fresh swell, wind, tide, and visibility data for every spot and recalculate the prone foil score.
How is the prone foil score calculated?
A multiplicative penalty chain compressed with an adaptive gamma exponent, so one soft factor does not sink the day. The wave height base (0-100) is multiplied by period, swell direction, wind speed, gust consistency, wind direction, tide safety, current, rain, and visibility factors. Safety caps prevent inflated scores in dangerous conditions, and a dawn/dusk glassy bonus rewards glass-off sessions.
Why do prone foil scores invert from surf scores?
Foils generate lift from minimal swell energy. A 0.5m choppy day scores 20/100 for surf but 50/100 for prone foiling. Conversely, a 2.5m clean day scores 80/100 for surf but only 20/100 for prone foiling (too dangerous with a mast).
What does this leaderboard cover?
Prone foiling: paddling into a small, clean wave and catching the swell line on the foil. It optimises for glassy faces, a small swell peak of 0.8 to 1.2m, light wind, and tide depth that keeps the mast clear of the reef.
What about wing and downwind foiling?
Those are now separate leaderboards with their own scoring. Wing foiling is a wind sport tuned for steady 15 to 30 km/h breeze, and downwind foiling rewards open-ocean bumps of 1.5 to 3m. See the wing foil and downwind foil pages for live scores.
Where does the data come from?
Open-Meteo Marine and Weather APIs. Swell height, period, direction, wind, visibility, and precipitation for every spot. Tide position from harmonic predictions.
Are these the same spots as the surf leaderboard?
Yes, the same surf spots ranked by a completely different formula. The small, clean days most surfers skip are often the best prone foil days.
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