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Dooms 54.4

#3672 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇦🇼 Aruba · Aruba · near Oranjestad

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

Works all yearWarm waterIntermediate
Dooms, Aruba
Photo: Serge Melki from Indianapolis, USA · CC BY 2.0 · source
Surf score54.4 /100
Surfable days100% of the year
Clean days2% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell2% period 11 s+
Typical size1.4 m 4.7 ft median
Water28°C boardshorts

Best time to surf Dooms

The best time to surf Dooms is September, October, November. It rarely works. In September the water sits around 29°C, so pack boardshorts, and the typical wave is 1.2 m. The nearest airport is AUA (13 km) and the nearest town is Oranjestad (11 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan100%1%1.5 m27°Cboardies
Feb100%0%1.7 m27°Cboardies
Mar100%2%1.5 m26°Cboardies
Apr100%0%1.5 m27°Cboardies
May100%0%1.6 m27°Cboardies
Jun100%0%1.5 m27°Cboardies
Jul100%0%1.5 m28°Cboardies
Aug100%0%1.5 m28°Cboardies
Sep97%6%1.2 m29°Cboardies
Oct100%4%1.1 m30°Cboardies
Nov99%5%1.2 m28°Cboardies
Dec100%2%1.4 m28°Cboardies

What is under Dooms

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor is still shallow, 16 m. Alongside the bank the survey finds a channel, 29 m against 16 m, deep enough to bend swell onto one peak instead of spreading it along the beach.

Depth 8 km out16 m
Depth 4 km out7 m
Channel beside it29 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 54.4

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%
13.9
Best days 22.4%
8.4
Clean days 18.4%
0.2
Consistency 10.2%
10.2
Season spread 4.1%
4.1
Water comfort 6.1%
6.1
Access 4.1%
4.1

The detail

Faces 330° with 81% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 90% of days. Mean peak period 6.7 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): 25%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates 12.616, -70.044 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€1,830/ month
typically €1,610 – €2,050
Rent, one bedroom€960
Groceries€385
Eating out€218
Getting around€126
Phone + internet€138
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€3,560/ month
typically €3,140 – €3,990
Somewhere to stay€2,100
Eating out€753
Car, transfers, fuel€483
Data + extras€230
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 15% above the country average. Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for Aruba (2024, 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
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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.

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