Cloud 9 Swell Window
Siargao, Philippines · part of the Cloud 9 spot guide
- Swell window (from)
- 30°–160° (NNE–SSE)
- Best direction
- ~65° (ENE)
- Period sweet spot
- 13–16 s
- Open-ocean height (Hs)
- 5–12 ft
- Resulting faces
- 3–12 ft
Open-ocean vs. the face: the heights on buoys and forecast models are significant wave height (Hs) in deep water. What you ride is the breaking face, which depends on period, direction and this break's bathymetry — that's why the two rows above differ. PierMonkey's spot ratings already do this conversion for you.
Cloud 9 takes a northeast-through-southeast window centred on the east and northeast, best around 45–90°, with quality lifting sharply once the period reaches 13 to 16 seconds. It faces the open Pacific, so a long-period typhoon groundswell from the east-northeast is the classic scenario.
The height on a model is an open-ocean reading. A modest 1.5-to-2 m reading makes a fun 3-to-5-foot wave; a solid 2-to-3 m at long period is a hollow, overhead reef, and 3 m and up is double-to-triple-overhead.