Pacific City Surf Season
Oregon, USA · part of the Pacific City spot guide
Prime is October to March, peaking December to February with January cited as the single best month. North Pacific storms deliver strong, well-organised west and west-northwest groundswell, and Cape Kiwanda’s shelter lets the spot stay rideable when the prevailing coastal wind ruins exposed beaches — so its surfable window is disproportionately a cold-season phenomenon. Even in the best month it is frequently blown out; summer is smaller and less consistent, more a longboard window than a performance one.
Where the swell comes from
Gulf of Alaska and North Pacific extratropical storms for the dominant west-to-west-northwest groundswell, plus nearer-coast frontal windswell that arrives in roughly equal measure here.
Historic swells at Pacific City
Record Oregon storm
A storm off the Columbia River produced an offshore significant height around 14.6 metres (about 48 feet), the largest recorded on the Oregon coast — an open-ocean figure, not a breaking face at the cape.
North Pacific storm pattern
Oregon winter storms routinely raise open-ocean heights to around three metres, with large events reaching roughly ten metres offshore; on such days Cape Kiwanda is usually maxed or holding only in the sheltered corner — the record here is seasonal, not single-day.