Witch's Rock Swell Window
Guanacaste, Costa Rica · part of the Witch's Rock spot guide
- Swell window (from)
- 190°–300° (S–WNW)
- Best direction
- ~210° (SSW)
- Period sweet spot
- 13–18 s
- Open-ocean height (Hs)
- 2–10 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-northwest. South and southwest bring size and the marquee days from Southern Hemisphere groundswell, while west and west-northwest give the steadier dry-season sessions. Period around 13-to-18 seconds gives clean, powerful, hollow peaks, with long-period south swell producing the best-shaped waves; short-period windswell is weaker and closes out more.
A punchy beach break can throw set faces at or above the open-ocean height, and the Papagayo offshore wind is what separates a groomed session from a blown-out one — read the height and the face as separate numbers.