WorldColombia › Magdalena › 7 Olas

7 Olas 53.2

#3772 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇨🇴 Colombia · Magdalena · near Santa Marta

Works almost every day, wind is the enemy here, no off season.

Works all yearWarm waterIntermediate
7 Olas, Colombia
Photo: Yamelli Zamora Garcia · CC BY 3.0 · source
Surf score53.2 /100
Surfable days92% of the year
Clean days0% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell0% period 11 s+
Typical size1.3 m 4.3 ft median
Water29°C boardshorts

Best time to surf 7 Olas

It rarely works. The nearest airport is BAQ (88 km) and the nearest town is Santa Marta (14 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan98%0%1.5 m28°Cboardies
Feb100%0%1.8 m28°Cboardies
Mar99%0%1.6 m28°Cboardies
Apr99%0%1.3 m28°Cboardies
May98%0%1.2 m29°Cboardies
Jun97%0%1.4 m29°Cboardies
Jul99%0%1.5 m28°Cboardies
Aug90%0%1.2 m29°Cboardies
Sep69%0%0.8 m30°Cboardies
Oct68%0%0.8 m31°Cboardies
Nov90%0%1.1 m30°Cboardies
Dec99%0%1.5 m29°Cboardies

What is under 7 Olas

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor sits over 25 m.

Depth 8 km out25 m
Depth 4 km out13 m

Measured, not estimated: NOAA ETOPO 2022 global relief at 15 arc-seconds, about 460 m per cell, sampled along this spot’s own swell window. At that scale the survey sees passes and channels; it cannot see a reef ledge, so nothing here is said about how the wave breaks.

Why 53.2

Seven parts, each normalised 0 to 1 and multiplied by its weight; the sum is scaled so the best spot in the world scores 100. Wave quality and what the spot does on its best days carry more than half of it, which is what separates this from a ranking of where the water is warm.

Wave quality 34.7%
13.1
Best days 22.4%
8.9
Clean days 18.4%
0.0
Consistency 10.2%
10.2
Season spread 4.1%
4.1
Water comfort 6.1%
6.1
Access 4.1%
3.6

The detail

Faces 356° with 22% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 30% of days. Mean peak period 6.9 s. Days over 3 m: 0%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 1.9 m, with a peak period of 8 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 40%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates 11.320, -74.098 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€1,020/ month
typically €893 – €1,140
Rent, one bedroom€529
Groceries€211
Eating out€119
Getting around€70
Phone + internet€76
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€1,980/ month
typically €1,740 – €2,210
Somewhere to stay€1,160
Eating out€416
Car, transfers, fuel€270
Data + extras€124
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Airport and town on the doorstep, so the local estimate is 8% above the country average. Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for Colombia (2025, United States = 1.00) applied to a fixed surfer basket, then adjusted for how remote the spot is. Your own number moves with the season and how you live.

Our own project · Sumba, Indonesia
Own a cabin on a surf coast in Sumba

Sumba has eight spots in this ranking, the best of them inside the world top 50. A cabin is €11,500. The land it sits on is separate, from €6,500 (€9,950 oceanfront), on an 80-year lease that extends at the end. Water, septic and electricity are another €6,500, and furniture is on top, so a finished cabin lands around €28,000 plus the land, payable in instalments.

Eco Beach City is run by the same people as SurfRanking, so treat this as our own advert, not a recommendation. It is an off-plan property in Indonesia: take your own legal and financial advice before paying anything.

Spots nearby

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