BestSurfing
Point breaks, beach breaks and reef breaks, from forgiving beginner coasts to serious big-wave locations, rated by swell consistency and seasonal timing. The swell season is what makes a spot work, and it rarely coincides with the pleasant season — many of the best waves arrive in the wettest, coldest or emptiest months, which is exactly why the line-ups are bearable then.
Snapper Rocks – Superbank
Gold Coast, Queensland
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A sand-bottom point break created partly by an artificial sand-bypass system, capable of extremely long right-hand rides and a recurring marquee venue on the professional world tour.
Noosa Heads – First Point
Sunshine Coast, Queensland
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A series of gentle right-hand point breaks wrapping around a national-park headland, prized for long, mellow longboard waves that peel best on summer cyclone swells.
Bells Beach
Torquay, Victoria
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A powerful right-hand reef and point break set below sandstone cliffs, home to the world's longest-running surf contest and a foundational site of Australian surf culture.
Soup Bowl
Bathsheba
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A powerful reef break on the rugged Atlantic east coast of Barbados, producing punchy, hollow right-handers and widely rated the best wave in the eastern Caribbean.
Santa Teresa
Nicoya Peninsula
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A stretch of consistent beach breaks along a laid-back stretch of Costa Rica's Pacific coast, offering warm water and reliable surf that made it a popular expat and traveler hub.
Playa Hermosa
Jacó, Central Pacific
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A long, powerful black-sand beach break just south of Jacó, known for punchy, consistent waves and used as a venue for national and international competitions.
Punta Roca
La Libertad
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A fast, world-class right-hand point break over rock near the port of La Libertad, El Salvador's premier wave and a stop on international competition circuits.
Cloudbreak
Tavarua Island, Mamanucas
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A powerful left-hand reef break sitting well offshore from tiny Tavarua Island, long a bucket-list wave and a recurring stop on the professional world tour.
Hossegor – La Gravière
Landes, Southwest France
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A heavy beach break shaped by a deep offshore canyon, producing thick autumn barrels over shifting sandbars and known as a historic venue on the professional world tour.
Biarritz – La Côte des Basques
Basque Coast
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A gentle beach exposed at low tide where surfing first took hold in continental Europe in the 1950s, now a mellow longboard spot beneath the cliffs of an elegant resort town.
Teahupo'o
Tahiti
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An unusually thick, heavy left-hander breaking over shallow coral reef, considered one of the most dangerous waves in the world and the surfing venue for the 2024 Olympics.
Uluwatu
Bukit Peninsula, Bali
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A series of long left-hand reef sections beneath dramatic clifftop temple grounds, one of Bali's most famous waves and a cornerstone of Indonesia's emergence as a surf destination.
Padang Padang
Bukit Peninsula, Bali
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A short, intense left barrel breaking over shallow coral reached through a cleft in the cliffs, nicknamed the Balinese Pipeline and reserved for experienced surfers on solid swells.
G-Land (Grajagan)
East Java
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A long, fast left-hand reef break fronting jungle inside a national park, one of the first Indonesian waves opened to surf camps and known for extended barreling walls.
Desert Point
Southwest Lombok
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A fickle, ultra-long left-hand barrel over sharp shallow reef in a remote corner of Lombok, rated by many as one of the world's best tube rides when it works.
Mentawai Islands
West Sumatra
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A remote archipelago off Sumatra with a dense concentration of world-class reef breaks, typically accessed by liveaboard charter boats and regarded among the finest wave zones on the planet.
Nias – Lagundri Bay
North Sumatra
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A near-perfect right-hand reef point on an island off Sumatra, famous for consistent, barreling waves and reshaped by the 2005 earthquake that lifted the reef.
Mullaghmore Head
County Sligo
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A cold-water big-wave slab breaking over shallow rock off a remote Atlantic headland, one of the heaviest and most hazardous tow-in waves discovered in Europe.
Tsurigasaki Beach
Ichinomiya, Chiba
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A beach break on Chiba's Pacific coast east of Tokyo, best on autumn typhoon swells, best known as the site of surfing's Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Games. Also known locally as Shidashita Beach.
North Malé Atoll
Chickens, Sultans & Cokes
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A cluster of warm-water reef breaks scattered across an Indian Ocean atoll, offering mostly playful, mid-sized waves surfed from resorts, guesthouses, and liveaboard boats.
Puerto Escondido – Zicatela
Oaxaca
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A ferociously heavy beach break on Mexico's Pacific coast dubbed the Mexican Pipeline, producing enormous, hollow, dangerous barrels that draw big-wave and tube specialists each summer.
Todos Santos Island
Baja California
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An offshore island big-wave reef reached by boat from Ensenada, whose outer break Killers hosted early big-wave contests and holds massive Pacific winter swells.
Taghazout
Agadir Region
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A former fishing village on Morocco's Atlantic coast surrounded by a run of right-hand point breaks, including the renowned Anchor Point, that draw surfers through the winter season.
Skeleton Bay
Skeleton Coast, Erongo
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An extraordinarily long left-hand sand-point barrel forming along a remote desert coastline, discovered via satellite imagery and considered among the longest tube rides in the world.
Raglan
Waikato, North Island
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A trio of linking left-hand point breaks over boulder reef on New Zealand's west coast, offering some of the country's longest rides and featured in the classic film The Endless Summer.
San Juan del Sur
Rivas Department
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A coastal town serving as a base for a string of nearby beach breaks, where strong offshore winds off Lake Nicaragua groom waves for much of the year.
Santa Catalina
Veraguas Province
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A rock-reef break on Panama's Pacific coast that holds size well and produces long, consistent waves, the country's best-known surf spot and a gateway to Coiba National Park.
Chicama
La Libertad
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A series of linking left-hand point breaks off a barren northern Peru headland, widely regarded as the longest rideable left in the world when the sections connect.
Pico Alto
Punta Hermosa, Lima
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A cold-water big-wave reef break south of Lima that holds Peru's largest surf, hosting big-wave competitions and regarded as one of South America's heaviest waves.
Cloud 9
Siargao Island
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A hollow, barreling reef break reached by a long wooden boardwalk over the reef, the wave that put Siargao on the map and made it the surfing capital of the Philippines.
Nazaré
Praia do Norte, Leiria
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An underwater canyon focuses swell energy onto this beach to create the largest waves ever surfed, where multiple world-record big-wave rides have been set, mostly via tow-in.
Supertubos
Peniche
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A powerful beach break producing fast, hollow barrels often likened to a European Pipeline, a regular stop on the professional tour along the exposed Peniche peninsula.
Ericeira
World Surfing Reserve, Lisbon Coast
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A fishing town whose cluster of reef and point breaks along a short stretch of coast made it Europe's first World Surfing Reserve, spanning waves for all abilities.
Rincón – Tres Palmas
Rincón
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A big-wave reef break within a marine reserve on Puerto Rico's west coast that only awakens on large winter north swells, the premier big-wave spot in the Caribbean.
Jeffreys Bay
Eastern Cape
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A world-renowned right-hand point break whose fast Supertubes section delivers long, high-speed walls. It is a historic professional-tour venue and one of the most celebrated waves on the planet.
Durban – New Pier
KwaZulu-Natal
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A shark-netted beach break beside a pier on Durban's urban shoreline, offering warm Indian Ocean water and consistent, accessible waves that nurtured generations of South African surfers.
Mundaka
Basque Country
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A rivermouth sandbar at the edge of a UNESCO biosphere reserve that forms one of the longest and most celebrated left-hand barrels in Europe when conditions align.
Fuerteventura – North Shore
Canary Islands
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A stretch of reef and beach breaks on a volcanic Atlantic island off West Africa, offering a warm, consistent, wind-exposed coastline with waves ranging from beginner beaches to heavy reefs.
Arugam Bay
Eastern Province
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A long right-hand point break peeling off a sandy headland on Sri Lanka's east coast, the country's best-known wave and the anchor of a laid-back surf-town scene.
Thurso East
Caithness, Scottish Highlands
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A frigid right-hand reef break peeling over flagstone slabs beside a ruined castle near the northern tip of mainland Britain, celebrated for cold-water barrels and once a contest stop.
Malibu – Surfrider Beach
Malibu, Los Angeles County
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A cobblestone point break producing long, mellow right-handers, an iconic hub of Southern California surf culture in the 1950s and 60s and the birthplace of modern longboarding style.
Huntington Beach
Orange County ("Surf City USA")
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A long sandy beach break around a landmark pier that offers consistent, forgiving waves and hosts major professional and amateur contests, anchoring a self-styled surf-town identity.
Lower Trestles
San Clemente, Orange County
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A cobblestone reef inside San Onofre State Beach with fast, high-performance peaks breaking both directions, a long-standing venue for elite competition reached by a walk down a coastal trail.
Mavericks
Half Moon Bay, Northern California
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A cold-water big-wave reef breaking about half a mile offshore, notorious for enormous, dangerous winter swells and shark-inhabited waters that make it one of the sport's most serious arenas.
Rincon
Santa Barbara County
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A cobblestone point at the Santa Barbara–Ventura county line known as the Queen of the Coast, delivering long, tapering right-hand walls that draw crowds on clean winter swells.
Pine Trees
Kohala Coast, Big Island
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A protected, mellow reef break sheltered by a lava shelf on the Big Island's west coast, named for the ironwood trees lining the shore and a longtime local training ground accessed via a short walk across lava.
Hanalei Bay
North Shore, Kauai
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A wide, scenic bay backed by lush mountains offering a range of breaks from mellow beach waves on its western end to solid reef peaks on the east, the heart of Kauai's surf scene with waves for all abilities.
Tunnels (Makua Beach)
Ha'ena, North Shore Kauai
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A powerful outer reef break off a lava-formed bay backed by the Nā Pali cliffs, producing thick barrels over sharp coral on solid winter swells, one of the most dramatic surf settings in Hawaii.
Jaws (Pe'ahi)
North Shore, Maui
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A deep-water reef off Maui that generates some of the biggest rideable waves on Earth, central to the rise of tow-in surfing and later big-wave paddle competitions.
Ho'okipa Beach Park
Paia, North Maui
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A powerful reef break on Maui's north shore internationally famous as a windsurfing and kitesurfing hub, equally respected by surfers for its heavy, barreling peaks and history of hosting major contests.
Honolua Bay
West Maui
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A scenic right-hand point break peeling along a rocky headland inside a marine reserve, prized for its long, clean walls when north and west winter swells wrap into the bay.
Pipeline
North Shore, Oahu
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A shallow reef break producing hollow, barreling left-handers over sharp lava rock, widely considered one of the deadliest waves in surfing and home to a marquee professional contest each winter.
Waimea Bay
North Shore, Oahu
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A deep-water bay that only breaks on the largest winter swells, this big-wave venue launched modern big-wave riding in the late 1950s and hosts the invitation-only Eddie Aikau event.
Sunset Beach
North Shore, Oahu
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A large, powerful reef break known for shifting peaks and strong currents across a wide takeoff zone, long a fixture of the North Shore winter competition circuit.
Haleiwa Ali'i Beach
North Shore, Oahu
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A versatile right- and left-hand reef break anchoring the southern end of the North Shore competition circuit, offering long, workable walls and a friendly surf town atmosphere compared to its neighbors.
Makaha Beach
Wai'anae Coast, Oahu
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Hawaii's original big-wave venue on Oahu's west shore, where Buzzy Trent and George Downing pioneered big-wave riding in the 1950s. A powerful right-hand break and home to one of the oldest surf competitions in the world.
Ala Moana Bowls
Honolulu, Oahu
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A hollow, fast left-hand reef break over a shallow coral shelf inside Honolulu's outer reef, favored by local tube riders for its punchy, bowly sections and one of the most-surfed spots in the city.
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