Playa Tivives • Surf Spot Statistics

Best Surf Season (December - March)

If you are looking for the closest thing to a reliable surf window at Playa Tivives, the heart of the dry season is it. As the Intertropical Convergence Zone shifts south and the Northeast Trade Winds strengthen, the prevailing flow at the beach turns offshore from the N/NNE/NE/ENE quadrant for a much higher share of the time. That sets up clean, glassy surface conditions even though the average swell height remains tiny at 0.7-1ft (0.2-0.3m). December already shows a strong return of N/NNE flow at roughly 21% of wind observations, while January, February and March push that share closer to 30%. Rainfall in this core dry period sinks below 0.4mm/day. The dominant SSW swell window (45-50% of all swell observations) is in the water, but with nearly everything below 1.6ft (0.5m), expect a longboard-friendly knee-to-thigh-high dribble rather than hollow waves. When a stronger southern-hemisphere pulse pushes SSW/S swell heights up toward 3-5ft (0.9-1.5m), the place becomes genuinely fun.

Fair Surf Season (April, May and November)

These are transition months around Costa Rica's Pacific coast. April still carries some dry-season DNA, with NNE winds making up a notable share and rainfall building from only 0.24mm/day in March to 1.31mm/day. The average wave period lengthens to 14.0s in April and 14.5s in May as southern-hemisphere swell season fires up, but the wind dial shifts onshore more often and the majority of the energy is still small. November marks the opposite transition: the ITCZ retreating south means a gradual return of north winds, yet southwest-onshore flow remains common and the surf is still undersized. In all three months, early mornings are the play; the afternoon sea breeze tends to ruin the texture.

Low Surf Season (June - October)

From June through October, the ITCZ sits right over Central America and Tivives gets trapped in a classic rainy-season pattern. Onshore winds from S/SSW/SW/WSW and convective seabreezes are dominant, and ideal offshore wind drops to 0% in every single month. Average rainfall peaks at 7.37-7.63mm/day in September and October, so surfaces are often stormy and chopped up. The swell spectrum is dominated by long-period SSW/SW energy from the southern Pacific, but the height is consistently below 1.6ft (0.5m) and often destroyed by opposed wind. This is the low point of the year for Playa Tivives: occasional south-swell pulses can produce fun long-period waves, but they are rare, short-lived and usually arrive with onshore wind or rain.