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Baggies 67.4

#2541 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇿🇦 South Africa · KwaZulu-Natal · near Durban

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

Works all yearIntermediate
Baggies, South Africa
Photo: Dedekindr · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Surf score67.4 /100
Surfable days100% of the year
Clean days16% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell27% period 11 s+
Typical size1.6 m 5.3 ft median
Water24°C a rash vest or 2 mm

Best time to surf Baggies

The best time to surf Baggies is May, June, July. It rarely works. In May the water sits around 24°C, so pack a rash vest or 2 mm, and the typical wave is 1.5 m. The nearest airport is DUR (14 km) and the nearest town is Durban (28 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan100%9%1.6 m25°Cboardies
Feb100%15%1.6 m26°Cboardies
Mar100%18%1.5 m26°Cboardies
Apr100%20%1.6 m25°Cboardies
May100%36%1.5 m24°Cvest
Jun100%34%1.5 m23°Cvest
Jul100%33%1.6 m22°Cvest
Aug99%27%1.7 m21°C2mm
Sep100%4%1.7 m22°C2mm
Oct100%5%1.8 m22°Cvest
Nov100%4%1.6 m23°Cvest
Dec100%9%1.6 m24°Cvest

What is under Baggies

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor sits over 42 m.

Depth 8 km out42 m
Depth 4 km out45 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 67.4

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%
16.5
Best days 22.4%
11.9
Clean days 18.4%
7.0
Consistency 10.2%
10.2
Season spread 4.1%
4.1
Water comfort 6.1%
4.7
Access 4.1%
3.8

The detail

Faces 120° with 47% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 59% of days. Mean peak period 9.8 s. Days over 3 m: 2%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 2.2 m, with a peak period of 12 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 8%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates -30.079, 30.873 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€1,010/ month
typically €889 – €1,130
Rent, one bedroom€530
Groceries€210
Eating out€120
Getting around€70
Phone + internet€75
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€1,960/ month
typically €1,720 – €2,200
Somewhere to stay€1,160
Eating out€415
Car, transfers, fuel€265
Data + extras€125
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
48% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for South Africa (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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