Ron Hunter, who has been running dive boats for more than 30 years out of his Forster-based business, Dive Forster, believes the winds have been unprecedented.

"Its just been 24 hour nor-easters, seven days a week, he said.

Ive been talking to a lot of fishermen and theyve never seen anything like it.

Mr Hunter said the dive charter business has always been a weather-dependent game, but that this season has been particularly difficult.

Weve had an unlucky two months, he admitted.

Weve rarely got out to sea. Its just been too rough.

Its a position shared by Phil Gogerly of Forster fishing charter business, Reel Ocean Adventures, who said the blustery conditions have hit his business hard.

Its been shocking, he said.

We were booked out almost every day of the holidays but were only able to get nine trips in.

Mr Gogerly said that not only have the strong winds negatively impacted the areas charter boat industry at their busiest time of year, its also significantly effected ocean conditions at large.

The nor-easters stir up cold water and dirt and muck off the bottom, he said.

The fish hate it. We havent seen dolphin fish like we did last year we havent seen a lot of species.

Closer to shore, the nor-easters have also brought in some of the oceans less popular marine life.

There was a week and a half or two weeks there where there were a lot of bluebottles, President of Forster Surf Life Saving Club, John Quinn, said.

Mr Quinn said the consistently rough conditions had also changed the bottom contours at Main Beach, with a number of rips forming at what is ordinarily a safe and stable stretch.

Further down the coast, surf school operator Gary Hughes of Surface Surf School said that while the winds havent impacted on his ability to conduct lessons around the Pacific Palms area, its been a strange couple of months.

Ive never seen it so relentless, he said.

Usually you get a southerly change come through, but we havent had those.

Mr Hughes said that hes been forced to wear a steamer (full suit) almost all summer due to the cold water and that from a surfers perspective, its been a pretty lacklustre season for waves.

Interestingly, a spokesperson from meteorology site Weatherzone said that average wind speeds of a morning around Forster for the month of January havent been any stronger than the average for previous years, and only slightly above average in the afternoon.

He did point out that the winds have been predominantly from the north-east, however.

Winds were largely from the NNE/NE, in part due to high pressure being sat over the Tasman for much of the month, he said.

This high pressure also acted to block any frontal systems, keeping them much further to the south.

To local business operators like Mr Hunter and Mr Gogerly, this information brings little consolation.

Both men said theyve just got to move forward, take comfort in the fact they acted in the best interest of their customers, and hope for a better season next year.

You roll with the punches but you hope they dont keep throwing them, joked Mr Howard.