Ingonish Beach • Statistics for December

December: Peak Season Arrives with a Roar

December owns the biggest average swell of the year at 6ft (1.9m), and the 7.4s period keeps it punchy and powerful. Ingonish is fully exposed to the winter machine, with NNW (11.1%), NW (9.9%) and WNW (8.7%) providing near-constant energy; however, the true gold at this east-facing beach comes on those rarer days when the swell filters through the NE/E/SE quadrant. The wind pattern is dominated by strong W/NW flow - WNW (17.1%), W (13.7%) and NW (12.3%) - and ideal offshore windows hold at 31%, often in the frigid wake of passing cold fronts. Water temps have fallen to 4.4°C and air averages -1.5°C, with precipitation running 3.85 mm/day, commonly as snow. But the combination of long winter nights, holiday traffic and North Atlantic storm swells is the real deal. When the stars align, Ingonish Beach offers some of the most challenging and rewarding surf of the year - heavy, grinding, cold-water perfection for those willing to put in the time.