First Point • Statistics for January

January: Winter Westerlies and Clean Windows

January is a classic North Pacific winter month at First Point. The average swell height sits at 0.8m (2.5ft) with a solid 12.4s period, but the direction is overwhelmingly from the west - W swells account for 58.9% of the total energy and WSW adds another 27.6%. That leaves only a small sliver of true S/SSW groundswell, which is what this south-facing point really wants. When a storm track dips far enough south to send in a S/SSW component, the point lights up with clean, long-period lines. Wind quality is actually excellent for the season: offshore NNE winds make up 20.6% of the observations, with NNW and N winds adding another 18.9%, helping keep 59% of the month in the ideal wind window. Water temperature holds at 13.9°C with air temps around 13.3°C and 3.37 mm/day of rain, so a solid wetsuit is the standard kit. Expect mostly 2-3ft (0.6-0.9m) surf, with occasional 3-5ft (0.9-1.5m) pulses when the west-southwest groundswell lines up with light northerly offshore flow.