A321
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
Inflight Event / Encounter Wake Vortex Encounter
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Environment - Non Weather Related; Procedure
Wake upset during climb; turned off course to avoid further wake and it took several minutes to notify ATC of route deviation due to frequency congestion.  ATC was helpful once they understood what we needed.  Fortunately we were in an area with sparse traffic and therefore no risk of losing separation. It's all in the timing and altitude between aircraft; conditions were perfect and we flew into the wake. We turned off course to get out of continued wake. Wake events in climb or cruise are very rare and therefore surprising; beyond creating an algorithm to predict an encounter and adjusting traffic accordingly there is not much to do.
A-321 First Officer reported a wake turbulence encounter while climbing out from SFO.