Keramas Swell Window
Bali, Indonesia · part of the Keramas spot guide
- Swell window (from)
- 120°–230° (ESE–SW)
- Best direction
- ~200° (SSW)
- Period sweet spot
- 13–18 s
- Open-ocean height (Hs)
- 3–10 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.
Keramas draws from a wide arc because of its two mechanisms: direct east-to-south energy from about 120–180°, and the powerful groundswell arriving refracted from the south-southwest around 195–225°, best near 195–205°. West of about 205–225° the Bukit and Nusa Penida start to shadow it, so more westerly is not more Keramas. The marquee groundswell runs 13 to 18 seconds; wet-season swell is shorter.
The ridge amplifies the swell roughly two-to-three times, so the breaking face runs notably larger than the open-ocean reading — the WSL sweet spot of six-to-eight-foot faces comes from a much smaller model height. Read the alert threshold as open-ocean height, not the face.