Strickland Bay Swell Window
Western Australia, Australia · part of the Strickland Bay spot guide
- Swell window (from)
- 185°–265° (S–W)
- Best direction
- ~210° (SSW)
- Period sweet spot
- 12–18 s
- Open-ocean height (Hs)
- 4–12 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.
The window runs from south round to west — 185 to 265 degrees — with the core from south-south-west to south-west, roughly 195 to 235. Straight south arrives most directly onto the south-facing reef; true west and west-north-west are shadowed by the Cape Vlamingh headland four kilometres away except at long periods, which bend around it. Period is the lever: 12 seconds and up is winter groundswell, and the longer it is, the harder the left jacks on the platform.
Because the reef rises so abruptly from the middle shelf, mid- and long-period groundswell breaks bigger than the open-ocean number — the face runs roughly 1.2 to 1.4 times the buoy height at 12 seconds and more — while short-period sea-breeze windswell arrives cross-shore and shows less. It needs about three feet of face to work and the left holds to fifteen; the right is best under ten.