Tides and swell at Saint-Jean Bay: now, the next 7 days, the last 30 days and month by month, in St Barth local time.
Five spots share Saint-Jean Bay, from west to east: the Left, La Passe (the pass in front of the airport), the Middle, Pélican and Coupe-Gorges. Most are reef waves: they peel sideways along the reef, hollower and more powerful, with plenty of shoulder. In the passes, waves roll straight ahead, softer and flatter.
In the bay, water comes in over the reefs and flows out through the passes: that is where you paddle back out, and where the outgoing current strengthens in big swells.
The westernmost spot in the bay, backed by the cliff on its left.
Two left-hand take-off zones, ending on a bowl at the eastern end of the spot. Ride the wave all the way and you finish safely inside the bay. In hurricane swells with no wind, from 2 m, the wave starts at the tip of the cliff and offers beautiful barrels, all the way to the wave of the airport pass.
In front of the airport, between the Left and the Middle.
A good spot to learn prone foiling and SUP foiling safely: a rolling sand-bottom wave with little power.
The isolated reef in the middle of the bay.
The left starts on the western edge of the spot, on the peak, with plenty of shoulder and power; a right works in good conditions. The wave always has enough push whatever its size, but closes out from 2 m. Ride it all the way and you finish safely inside the bay.
It closes the bay to the east, past the Eden Rock pass.
A right-hander ending on a bowl, with plenty of shoulder. Don't go straight or you end up on the rocks. Ride it all the way and you finish safely inside the bay.
In front of the cliff, further out than Pélican.
The bigger the waves, the further it breaks from the cliff, becoming very clean and long; it can then link up with Pélican.
Tides in St Barth are subtle: the difference between high and low water (the tidal range) is usually only a few tens of centimetres. The regime is mixed, mainly diurnal: depending on the day, the sea rises and falls once or twice, with high tides of unequal height.
A small range still matters on a shallow spot like Saint-Jean Bay: a few centimetres more or less change the water depth over the reef and the way waves break on it.
Either way, wind and swell matter far more than the tide at Saint-Jean: check them live on the dashboard before heading out.
Stormglass tide predictions (aggregated harmonic models calibrated on tide gauges) for 17.90° N – 62.84° W, Saint-Jean Bay. Updated daily.
High and low tide times for Saint-Jean Bay are at the top of this page, in St Barth local time (UTC−4), with the 7-day forecast.
Small: the difference between high and low water is usually only a few tens of centimetres. The regime is mixed, mainly diurnal, with one or two tides depending on the day.
It is an index from 0 to 120 computed from the day’s tidal range, as on the dashboard: the higher it is, the more the sea rises and falls.
Yes, despite the small range: at low tide, the wave breaks over shallower water above the reef; at high tide, there is more water above the coral heads to swim without touching them.