Nahoon Reef • Statistics for December

December: Summer Fun and Frustration in Equal Measure

December rounds out the year with quintessential summer surf. Average height sits at 6ft (1.8m), period at 10.2s, and the swell mix is nicely split: the E/ESE/SE/SSE direction provides 43.0 per cent of the energy - including E at 11.4 per cent and SSE at 13.0 per cent - while S at 20.7 per cent and SSW at 25.9 per cent supply the rest. There is enough size for fun-to-solid waves, but the favourable-wind number falls to 16 per cent, matching the year's low. ENE at 19.9 per cent and NE at 15.4 per cent dominate the windrose, and the W/NW offshore flow is extremely rare; SW at 12.8 per cent and WSW at 10.6 per cent occasionally clean things up. Water temperature rises to 20.9°C, air averages 21.7°C, and rainfall is 3.84mm/day.

The holiday surf is usually pretty average by Nahoon's standards, but a passing cold front or cut-off low can produce an E/ESE swell with enough west in the wind to make the reef briefly world-class. Patience and a flexible schedule are the keys to December.