Ocean Beach (SF) Swell Window
California, USA · part of the Ocean Beach (SF) spot guide
- Swell window (from)
- 210°–330° (SSW–NNW)
- Best direction
- ~275° (W)
- Period sweet spot
- 13–18 s
- Open-ocean height (Hs)
- 3–15 ft
- Resulting faces
- 3–15 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.
Being an exposed open beach with no headland shelter, Ocean Beach catches everything from south-southwest through west to north-northwest, but the best is west to west-northwest long-period groundswell — a straight west swell with an offshore east wind is the classic setup. The outer bars need period to organise, so 13-to-18 seconds is the money band and short-period windswell tends to close out the inner bar.
The buoy sits on the San Francisco Bar in about 15 metres of water, so its height is a good but slightly shoaled nearshore reading. Keep it separate from the face: on a good outer bar a long-period west groundswell can throw faces well overhead even at a modest buoy height, while short-period swell of the same height just closes out.