Gunnamatta • Statistics for January

January: High-Summer Southern Ocean Swell

January is classic high-summer surf at Gunnamatta. The Southern Ocean is still active, and the beach sees an average swell height right around 4-5ft (1.4m) with an 11.2s period-solid, long-period groundswell for a beach break. The swell window is dominated by the SW, which supplies 54.9% of all wave energy, and SSW adds another 19.9%; combined, these two directions are the bread and butter for this southwest-facing coastline. Most of the energy sits in the fun-to-good 3-5ft (1-1.5m) range, with around 19% pushing into the 5-6.5ft (1.5-2m) class. No north swell reaches the beach, so the coast is completely dependent on the Southern Ocean.

The wind story is the catch. The afternoon sea breeze from the S/SSW/SW quadrant arrives almost daily, and together those directions make up a large share of the wind observations. Only 14% of the time is the wind truly offshore from the N/NE/E quadrant. The scoreable window is the morning, before the seabreeze builds, and especially after a high settles over the Tasman Sea. Air temperatures average 18.1°C, water temperature is a warm 19.1°C, and rainfall is modest at 1.57mm/day. Bring a summer wetsuit and be ready to surf dawn patrol.