Spot Kontiki • Statistics for January

January: A Foundation of Clean, Long-Period Summer Swell

January opens the year with an average swell of around 4-5ft (1.4m) and a solid 13.0s period, putting Kontiki in the fun-to-solid range. The wave rose is heavily SSW-weighted at 71%, but crucially the preferred SW window still accounts for 28% of the total, one of the best directional splits of the year. There is a healthy mix of 3-5ft (1-1.5m) and 5-6.5ft (1.5-2m) groundswell, enough to keep the sandbars doing their thing. The wind is the main limiting factor: S, SSW and SW winds together make up over 85% of the observations, and pure offshore NE/ENE/E/ESE flow is almost absent in the raw wind rose. Only about 6% of the time is the wind truly ideal. Still, when high pressure drifts inland and kills the afternoon southerly, the 13s+ SW swell can produce beautiful, rippable waves. Air temperatures average 20.6°C, water temperature is 19.0°C, and rainfall is negligible, so January remains a very comfortable month to sit in the line-up.