Downwind waves.

When the wind blows against the tide, the Hudson stands up into short, steep waves you can ride downwind.

Turn the wind, flip the tide
A word of cautionBefore you ever paddle here.
  • Learn the tide and current for the day, and what they do to the wind.
  • Always paddle with others, and with someone experienced.
  • Wear a life jacket, dress for the water temperature, and carry a way to call for help.
  • Check the official NOAA marine forecast. This site is not a safety clearance.
  • Stay clear of ferries, terminals, piers and commercial traffic.
Try it

Turn the wind, flip the tide.

Drag the compass to set where the wind comes from, and slide the current between ebb and flood. The map colours the whole river by modeled wave height, and the line from the marker shows the stretch of open water the wind blows across to reach a spot mid-river off Hoboken Cove.

Try this: it starts at 15 knots from 27 degrees against a flood. Slide the current to ebb and watch the chop drop, then turn the wind round to the south.

Overlay
00.5 m / 1.6 ft1.0 m / 3.3 ft1.5 m / 4.9 ft

Colour is wave height at each spot for the wind and tide you set. Orange streaks are wind, blue streaks are the tidal current. Streak speed is for feel, not to scale.

Forecast spot
0ft
Glassy
Height0 m
Period0 s
Fetch0 km
Ebb, down-river (212°)Flood, up-river (26°)

Drag the dial to turn the wind. Ring colour shows the wave height each wind direction would give at the forecast spot. The orange marker is the forecast spot, a reference point in open water mid-river off Hoboken Cove, not a recommended launch site. Current directions are NOAA station NYH1928 (Pier 92). Estimates come from a simple fetch and current model, so check them against what you see on the water.

A teaching model, not a forecast. Wave heights come from a simple fetch and current model and have not been checked against logged sessions. Nothing here tells you whether to go out.

See the 72-hour forecast

Three things to know
  1. Wind against tide stacks waves. When wind and current oppose each other, waves get shorter and steeper than the same wind over still water.
  2. Two wind directions work here. From about 27 degrees, north-northeast, on a flood. From about 190 degrees, south, on an ebb.
  3. Open water makes them bigger. The longer the stretch of open river upwind, called fetch, the more the waves build. To the north of Hoboken it is about 20 km.

New to the tide and current? Start with the river.

Six paddlers in an outrigger canoe on grey water in front of the Midtown skyline under a cloudy sky
An outrigger canoe crew off Hoboken. Downwind runs are a group activity.
Two stand-up paddlers wearing belt life jackets ride wind chop on the Hudson, with kayakers and the Lower Manhattan skyline behind them
Riding wind chop together, belt life jackets on.
Learn more

How the waves build.

Wind, fetch and tide

Wind from about 27 degrees, north-northeast, lines up with the long open reach of river to our north. The longer wind blows over open water, called fetch, the bigger the waves get.

The tide then adds or takes away steepness. When wind and current oppose each other, waves get shorter and steeper than the same wind over still water.

The two angles we watch
27°
From the north, flood tide
Wind from
about 25 to 30 deg (NNE)
Tide
Flood, flowing north-northeast
Fetch
about 18 to 21 km at 26 to 28 deg
190°
From the south, ebb tide
Wind from
about 188 to 194 deg (S)
Tide
Ebb, flowing south-southwest
Fetch
15 to 16 km, up to 30 km at 188 to 189 deg

Figures come from a model for a spot mid-river off Hoboken Cove, built from NOAA shoreline data. The windows are only a few degrees wide, the model has not yet been checked against logged sessions, and forecast wind direction is rarely this precise. They show where the most wave energy builds and say nothing certain about any given day.

Where next

What about the water itself?

Before any session, know what is in the river, especially after rain.

Water quality