Virginia Beach Swell Window
Virginia, USA · part of the Virginia Beach spot guide
- Swell window (from)
- 30°–170° (NNE–S)
- Best direction
- ~135° (SE)
- Period sweet spot
- 10–16 s
- Open-ocean height (Hs)
- 1–8 ft
- Resulting faces
- 1–8 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 northeast through east to south-southeast, matching the east-facing beach. Southeast to east-southeast around 120 to 150° is the classic hurricane-groundswell optimum, while winter northeast-to-east-northeast nor’easter swell also works and is more consistent in the cold months. Period is critical because the wide shelf strips short-period energy — 8-to-14 seconds is workable, but 12-to-16-second long-period hurricane groundswell is what really turns it on.
The buoy height reads bigger than the face because the wide shelf refracts and dissipates the swell in transit — the face-to-buoy ratio here is poorer than at deep-water reef spots, so plan for the shelf tax.