Westport Swell Window
Washington, USA · part of the Westport spot guide
- Swell window (from)
- 200°–320° (SSW–NW)
- Best direction
- ~290° (WNW)
- Period sweet spot
- 11–17 s
- Open-ocean height (Hs)
- 2–15 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, with the best-quality energy west to northwest wrapping past the jetty; south-southwest still reaches the open Groins beach but weaker and less organised. Long-period northwest energy of roughly 11-to-17 seconds refracts best around the jetty and fills the groin sandbars, while short-period wind-sea is junky.
The buoy reads open-ocean height, and Half Moon Bay in the jetty’s lee runs noticeably smaller and cleaner than the open Groins beach on the same reading — treat the two zones as different size regimes, and read the face as smaller than the buoy number.