Punta Roca Alert Guide

La Libertad, El Salvador · part of the Punta Roca spot guide

Punta Roca is forecast-only — there is no NOAA buoy anywhere on Central America’s Pacific coast, and the nearest NDBC wave buoy sits across the isthmus in the Caribbean — so the alert runs on the GFS-Wave model and the height below is an open-ocean reading. The point converts 13-second-plus groundswell into faces of about the same size or a little bigger; it needs roughly 3 feet to break off the rocks and holds to 12. El Salvador’s environment ministry publishes a weekly coastal swell bulletin and advisories for the La Libertad sector that make a useful cross-check.

The forecaster's checklist

1. 1.Watch the Roaring Forties south-east of New Zealand eight to ten days out — a storm-force front there is the classic Punta Roca setup; fronts south of Tahiti arrive in about seven.
2. 2.Want swell from the south-southwest to southwest, 190–230° best, with anything from 165 to 250° working; ignore energy through the Galápagos shadow around 180–190°.
3. 3.Period is the tell: 13 seconds and up for a proper peeling point, 15–17 seconds for the days everyone remembers. Short-period ITCZ swell of the same height breaks as peaks.
4. 4.Score a calm or north-to-north-northwest morning; a north-east wind puts cross-ribs on it and an easterly off the Gulf of Fonseca brings “morning sickness”. The sea breeze arrives near midday in the dry season.
5. 5.Ride the mid-to-high tide — low exposes the boulders and Mama Roca — and read the model swell height as open-ocean: 3 to 5 feet is fun-to-firing, 8 feet and up is maxing and pushing wide.

Local winds & tide

Best wind: N–NNW offshore (dawn window) — from 315° to 30° (NW–NNE).

Tidal range up to about 2 m on springs. All tides work, but mid to high is preferred — low tide exposes the boulders and makes every section shallower and heavier.

Dial it in