Humboldt Bay, California (40°45'N, 124°15'W) has one of the most dangerous entrances on the west coast of North America, due to a combination of high wave climate, shoaling conditions, and a large tidal prism. We discuss the development of a regional wave model to forecast conditions at the entrance. The model is a third generation spectral wave model (SWAN). Oceanic boundary conditions for the model are obtained from NOAA's Wave Watch III global model. The regional model is first run over a coarse grid (480 m resolution), then on a refined grid (10 m resolution). Tidal influences are incorporated using tidal height predictions, corrected for storm surge effects. Model runs are validated against NOAA nearshore buoy measurements and mariner observations of bar conditions. The National Weather Service, Eureka will use our model, to issue routine bar forecasts for mariners.