Ditch Plains Swell Window
New York, USA · part of the Ditch Plains spot guide
- Swell window (from)
- 110°–240° (ESE–WSW)
- Best direction
- ~145° (SE)
- Period sweet spot
- 8–14 s
- Open-ocean height (Hs)
- 2–6 ft
- Resulting faces
- 1–8 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.
The window runs east-southeast through southwest, with the sweet spot south-to-southeast around 130–160° for hurricane energy; southwest-to-south groundswell and east Nor’easter windswell fill the season, and anything past due east is shadowed behind Montauk Point. Period runs 8 to 14 seconds on hurricane groundswell, shorter on windswell.
The fat reef and short periods mean the face reads well below the open-ocean height — a 2-to-6-foot reading makes a fun 2-to-4-foot wave, and it tops out around 6 to 8 ft before quality falls off.