Swami's Surf Season
California, USA · part of the Swami's spot guide
Prime is late fall through winter, roughly October to March with January the single best month, when the North Pacific delivers the west-northwest groundswell the point is built for plus the season’s east-to-northeast offshore and Santa Ana winds that groom the west-southwest-facing wave. It is year-round rideable and also takes summer south swells, but those are less ideal for a west-southwest-facing right point — the wave is at its best on winter west-northwest.
Where the swell comes from
North Pacific and Gulf of Alaska winter storms for the long-period west-to-northwest groundswell that lights it up, and Southern Hemisphere and East Pacific south-to-southwest swells as a summer secondary.
Historic swells at Swami's
Big-swell holder
Swami’s is repeatedly cited as cresting over 10 feet on the biggest winter west-northwest swells, when the crowd thins and it handles as big a swell as the Pacific cares to throw — its reputation is precisely as a big-swell holder, though single dated days are thinly documented.