Xivares — local surf knowledge

The wave

Xivares is the big-swell beach of the area. Where other beaches on the central coast are already at their limit or closing out, Xivares starts to work, and what it needs to be good is demanding on four things at once: size, long period, offshore wind and a mid-to-high tide.

It needs real swell. Below 1.5 m the wave is not worth it, and below 1.1 m there is nothing.
It needs a long period. From 12 s upwards it is a different beach.
It is sensitive to onshore wind. In light wind it does not matter where it comes from, but as soon as anything blows outside the offshore sector you notice it straight away.

Size

Heights are given on the scale of the San Lorenzo page, which is the reference used to compare the beaches in the area. Xivares gets the same swell report as San Lorenzo, so the numbers read directly.

Minimum: 1.5 m with a good period. With a high tide and offshore wind it already gives a good session; at low tide, somewhat less.
Its sweet spot: 1.7 to 1.9 m with 12-13 s.
Limit: 2.1 m. Above that the beach gets out of hand, and with 2.5 m it is impossible to surf.

Period

The good range: 12 to 15 s.
With 11 s it still works if the size is right; below 10 s there is no good wave however much swell there is.
With 16 s or more it gets worse: too much water piles up. You notice it at 16 s, and quite a lot at 18 s.

Swell direction

Best: from 295° to 336°, west-north-west to north-west.
Outside that range it gets much worse, because far less swell reaches the beach. With a straight north or west swell there is no wave.

Wind

Good: the offshore, from 140° (south-east) to 240° (south-west).
It handles plenty of offshore wind: up to 18 knots is fine.
In light wind the direction does not matter: up to about 4 knots the wave is clean wherever the wind comes from.
Outside the offshore sector you notice it quickly. With 6 to 10 knots of cross-shore or onshore it already loses, and with 12 knots from the west, north-west or east it loses quite a lot. Northerlies and north-easterlies are the ones that spoil it most.

Tide

The tide does not only change how much swell is needed: it changes what kind of wave you get.

Best from mid to high, and above all at high tide.
At low tide it tends to close out. There is still a wave, but a worse one, and these are sessions for quite experienced surfers.
A full high tide on spring tides can cause backwash, and that makes the session worse.

How it compares with the others

Same swell report as San Lorenzo and Peñarrubia. The three beaches share the forecast point, so what sets them apart is how each one reads the same swell. Xivares starts working more or less where Peñarrubia stops.
It is the most sensitive to onshore wind of the three: San Lorenzo and Peñarrubia handle cross-shores better.
It is good on few days a year, around sixty, almost all of them from September to March, with a north-west groundswell.

In other words: this is not a beach to drive to just to see if there is something. When the forecast shows a big north-west swell with a long period, an offshore southerly wind and a rising tide, it is the one to look at.