Mavericks Swell Window
California, USA · part of the Mavericks spot guide
- Swell window (from)
- 265°–320° (W–NW)
- Best direction
- ~292° (WNW)
- Period sweet spot
- 16–22 s
- Open-ocean height (Hs)
- 10–18 ft
- Resulting faces
- 25–60 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.
Mavericks needs westerly-to-northwesterly long-period groundswell and is essentially blind to south and southwest swell. The productive window runs from about 265° to 320°, with the sweet spot near 290° WNW — lined up cleanly with the ramp so the wave focuses without shadowing. Period is non-negotiable: 16 seconds is a floor, and the epic days show 18–25.
The forecaster’s shorthand is that a mid-teens-foot significant height at 15 seconds or more from the WNW gives a rideable-to-big Mavericks, and 18–20+ ft at 18+ seconds is XXL. Those are buoy heights in deep water — the breaking face runs roughly two to three times that, which is how a "moderate" buoy day becomes a fifty-foot wall.