Rincon Swell Window
California, USA · part of the Rincon spot guide
- Swell window (from)
- 200°–300° (SSW–WNW)
- Best direction
- ~280° (W)
- Period sweet spot
- 13–18 s
- Open-ocean height (Hs)
- 3–9 ft
- Resulting faces
- 2–10 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.
Rincon is a west-northwest wrap. The money band is roughly 270–290°, west to west-northwest, which reaches the channel through the Conception and islands gap and wraps cleanly onto the cobble; the south-southwest low edge of the window is marginal because most south swell is island-shadowed. It favors long-period groundswell, about 13 to 18 seconds and up — the longer the period, the more it wraps and the better the sections connect.
The height read at the Santa Barbara buoy translates to bigger, cleaner faces than a beach break because of that long-period wrap. Around 3 ft at the buoy with a long-period west-northwest swell makes a 3-to-5-foot connecting face; 5 to 7 ft is a solid classic point; and much above about 9 ft it usually means a stormy, weather-beaten day. Buoy height and the face you ride are separate numbers.