Playa Tivives • Statistics for January

January: The Dry-Season Cleanup

January sits right at the core of Playa Tivives' most consistent surf window, though 'consistent' is relative in these parts. The average swell height is only 0.7ft (0.2m) and the average period is a moderate 10.9s, which means most of the energy present is long-period background swell from the southern Pacific - SSW makes up 50.1% of all swell observations, with S another 12.4%. The trade wind signal is strong from the northeast, with over 30% of winds coming from the offshore N/NNE/NE/ENE quadrant, including a healthy NNE component (14.8%). This helps explain why the wind is ideal for surfing only 1% of the time: half the time there is clean offshore flow, but the waves are simply too small to ride. Those rare combinations of greater south-southwest swell and a morning offshore drain are the golden tickets, with heights occasionally reaching the 1.6-3.3ft (0.5-1m) range. With water temp at 28.3°C (83°F) and rain almost nonexistent at 0.36mm/day, the main challenge in January is finding enough wave height, not wind or wet weather.