Lower Trestles Swell Window
California, USA · part of the Lower Trestles spot guide
- Swell window (from)
- 160°–290° (SSE–WNW)
- Best direction
- ~200° (SSW)
- Period sweet spot
- 14–18 s
- Open-ocean height (Hs)
- 3–8 ft
- Resulting faces
- 3–8 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.
Lowers takes a broad window — roughly 160° to 290° — because it has two engines. The money band is south to south-southwest around 180–210°, where Southern Hemisphere groundswell refracts and wraps cleanly into the peak; southeast tropical energy works but overshoots the point if it comes in too extreme; and winter west-to-northwest around 270–290° arrives more directly, smaller-feeling but organized. The best shape comes on a long-period south, 14–18 seconds.
This is a smaller, more forgiving performance wave than the region’s big-wave spots — it shines head-high and maxes modest. A 4–6 ft reading at the Green Beach buoy with a long-period south translates to head-high, walled, contest-quality faces; beyond about 9–10 ft it overpowers and the right breaks too far outside. The buoy height and the breaking face are close here, but they are still two different measurements.