Los Patos de Barahona

Best Surf Season (December - February)

This southeast-facing beach lives and dies by the Caribbean trade-wind machine. The annual statistics show that more than 80 percent of the year's swell arrives from the E/ESE quadrant with an average period stuck in the 6-7s range, meaning most surf is locally generated windswell rather than true groundswell. The best window is still December through February, when average heights climb to 3-3.6ft (1-1.1m), periods hold near 6.8s, and the North Atlantic storm track becomes active enough to occasionally throw more westerly energy into the region. You are still chasing rare W/NW offshore wind windows -- only 3-5 percent of the time -- but when a negative NAO pattern pushes fronts farther south, Los Patos can turn punchy and rippable.