February keeps the north-west groundswell running at about twenty-five days out of thirty, and the European holidays that filled the islands in December and January are over. The car parks stay quiet through February and March, on the same reefs that had a queue six weeks earlier.
The water is at 18°C, the low point of the year here, which means a 3/2 and a 4/3 if you plan on staying out three hours. That is the whole cost. There are no trade winds until June, so a day that starts glassy usually stays that way, and the north shore reefs from El Cotillo up to Rocky Point and The Bubble are getting the period they need. Booties are worth packing: that reef is shallow lava and it does not forgive a foot down.
