Ingonish Beach • Statistics for March

March: Spring Tease, Winter Swell

March is a transitional month that refuses to let go of winter. The average swell height is still a solid 5ft (1.6m) with a 7.3-second period, and the direction mix becomes more complicated than the deep winter months: NNW (11.9%) and NNE (8.1%) are joined by SE (7.2%) and ESE (6.5%), giving Ingonish a better chance of seeing waves from the preferred east quadrant, although those windows are still the exception. The real problem is wind. The ideal-surf wind percentage falls to 13%, the lowest of the year, as tightly packed lows and spring storms swing from W/NW to SW/SE. WNW and W flow combined make up nearly 26% of observations, but much of it is too strong and cold for clean sessions. Water temperature bottoms out at -1.1°C and average air temp sits at -3.6°C. When the post-frontal skies clear and a fading SW wind greets a late-season E/SE swell, March delivers surprisingly good, hollow waves along the cape - but you need thick gloves, a hood, and a lot of patience to find them.