Abstract. Assessment of wave power potential at different water depths and time is required for identifying a wave power plant location. This study examines the variation in wave power off the central west coast of India at water depths of 30, 9 and 5 m based on waverider buoy measured wave data. The study shows a significant reduction ( ∼  10 to 27 %) in wave power at 9 m water depth compared to 30 m and the wave power available at 5 m water depth is 20 to 23 % less than that at 9 m. At 9 m depth, the seasonal mean value of the wave power varied from 1.6 kW m⁻¹ in the post-monsoon period (ONDJ) to 15.2 kW m⁻¹ in the Indian summer monsoon (JJAS) period. During the Indian summer monsoon period, the variation of wave power in a day is up to 32 kW m⁻¹. At 9 m water depth, the mean annual wave power is 6 kW m⁻¹ and interannual variations up to 19.3 % are observed during 2009–2014. High wave energy ( >  20 kW m⁻¹) at the study area is essentially from the directional sector 245–270° and also 75 % of the total annual wave energy is from this narrow directional sector, which is advantageous while aligning the wave energy converter.