The Cribbar • Statistics for January

January: Deep-Winter Heavyweights

The Cribbar enters January with the North Atlantic in full voice. Average swell height sits at 2.2m (around 7ft), and with a long-period average of 12.1s this is serious, powerful groundswell territory. The waverose shows a strong bias for directly exposed W swell at 34.2%, with WNW adding 8.7%, NW 3.9%, and NNW 2.6% - a total of nearly half the month's swell arriving from the ideal window. WSW and SW fill in another 13.3%, meaning most of the energy is from a west/northwest angle. On the biggest pulses, heights push beyond 2.5m (8ft+), putting the Cribbar in XL mode. The wind is ideal for surfing 23% of the time, usually when a weak high-pressure cell sits to the north or east and feeds offshore E/ESE/SE/SSE breezes. More often, westerly winds accompany the lows, making quality sessions tricky. With air temperatures averaging 7.8°C, precipitation at 3.78 mm/day, and water temperature just 9.7°C, this is all-out winter surfing - bring the thickest hooded suit and pick your days around the wind.