Kincardine

Best Surf Season (October - March)

The most surfable stretch of the year at Kincardine runs from late autumn through early spring. This is when the Great Lakes storm track is most active: intense low-pressure systems, sharp cold fronts and Arctic air masses sweeping southeast across the continent generate the strongest pressure gradients over Lake Huron. Average swell heights climb to roughly 3.5-4.5ft (1.1-1.3m) and average periods reach 4.8-5.1s, which in an inland sea translates into punchy, rideable windswell. The wave rose fills in strongly from the west, west-northwest and northwest, exactly the fetch directions Kincardine is exposed to. The catch is that the same winds that build the swell are often onshore, and only about 4% of the time do we get the offshore ENE/E/ESE/SE flow needed for clean, lined-up waves. Still, the combination of bigger, more powerful surf and occasional post-frontal clearing gives the spot its best chance at quality during these months.