January sits in the middle of the north-west groundswell season. The lows that form between Newfoundland and Iceland send swell down the Atlantic with the length behind it, and length is what matters here: the reefs on the north shore of Fuerteventura need twelve seconds or more before they start to break properly. In January they get it about twenty-five days out of thirty.
The alisios are gone until June, so mornings and afternoons are both in play, and Lanzarote's heavy reefs at El Quemao and San Juan are on. The water is at 19°C, which is a 3/2 and nothing more. What January costs you is space: it is high season for European winter holidays as well as for surf, and the good reefs have a crowd and a local pecking order to go with it.
