Winds are important no doubt but you should be looking at swell info. I like windfinder.com but there are many others. Swell info has a lot of easy to read data but I think they underestimate the swells.

Look at swell forecast and the frequency of the swells. 3-4 foot swells at 8 seconds is not nearly as bad as 3-4's at 3 seconds. Also make sure you're looking at weather forecasts. A thunderstorm or front can make conditions nasty in a hurry. I was offshore once and a cold front that was forecast to pull up stationary around Waco came on down and met us 50 miles offshore. Swells went to 8-10 feet almost instantly. Only thing we could do was ride it out in a 30' boat.

Also remember the swell forecasts are just forecasts. Last time I was offshore it was supposed to be 2-3's at 5 seconds. It was 4-5's the first 5 miles out then turned into 6's after that.

While I tend to put a lot of stock in swell info many of the best offshore captains out there rely more on the wind info since that is what generates the swell info. The wind forecasts are often wrong so you have to go by what you are seeing.