Supertubos Swell Window
Peniche, Portugal · part of the Supertubos spot guide
- Swell window (from)
- 200°–310° (SSW–NW)
- Best direction
- ~240° (WSW)
- Period sweet spot
- 10–16 s
- Open-ocean height (Hs)
- 2–12 ft
- Resulting faces
- 2–12 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-southwest through west to northwest — the peninsula blocks north-quadrant swell — with west to west-southwest best for size and shape and southwest the classic Supertubos direction. Period is the barrel switch: roughly 10-to-16 seconds, with 12-to-14 the reliable band, long enough to stand up and throw square; short-period wind swell tends to close out.
Local convergence pushes the face above the open-ocean height, so a model height around 1.2-to-2 metres gives the prime, makeable barrel window and much bigger tends to close out, when surfers shift to sheltered Molho Leste. Read the height as open-ocean, not the face.