ocean conditions

My family is going to Fort Bragg, the ocean is forecasted to be 8ft at 10seconds, that seems big to me.

My question is at what condition do say it's not worth going.

I like the second number to be twice as big as the first. Personally, I don't go out if it's 8x10.
Ft Bragg is an hour drive for me and I was thinking of going, but probably won't because it doesn't look flat enough for me.
It still might be flatter than that nearshore. Good luck.

Yea I live in lakeport so it's two hours for me. Thanks for the input Mako, If I wasn't a hands on dad with two kids under two, l would of made it a point to hit some water with you Mako. Love your Clearlake Reports brother.

Looking at Stormsurf, I predict flat near shore and in coves.  NWS jacks up their forecast to show what wind waves could do to boats offshore.

8 ft at 10 seconds is pretty nearly "square seas". That's a term seafarers use to describe conditions when the wave height and period numbers are roughly the same (like 8 ft at 8 sec).

Shorter period swells (say less than 10 seconds) are usually locally generated wind swells caused by windy seas offshore from California or Oregon. The swells are "raw", disorganized, close together, and non-stop. You also have waves traveling at different speeds, overlapping each other ("doubling up").

When the windy seas are MUCH further away (like in the gulf of Alaska), the swells that make it down here to
CA are called groundswells, and usually have periods between 15-20+ seconds. These waves are much further apart, and much more organized into sets of like-sized waves. They are a little more predictable, but also have MUCH more energy behind them. For example, if a 5 ft at 8 second swell is causing 5-ft breaking waves at the shore, a 5 ft at 22 second swell very well may produce 8-10 foot breaking waves as all that energy hits a reef or sandbar and jacks upward.

Long story short, I probably wouldn't go out in unfamiliar water when the swell is 8ft at 10 sec...