WorldAustralia › Western Australia › Dunes - Exmouth

Dunes - Exmouth 75.5

#1826 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇦🇺 Australia · Western Australia · near Exmouth

Works almost every day, no off season, gentle enough to learn.

Works all yearWarm waterBeginner friendlyRemoteBeginner
Dunes - Exmouth, Australia
Photo: Nils Erik Mühlfried · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source · photo taken 3.0 km from the spot
Surf score75.5 /100
Surfable days95% of the year
Clean days48% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell61% period 11 s+
Typical size1.0 m 3.2 ft median
Water25°C boardshorts

Best time to surf Dunes - Exmouth

The best time to surf Dunes - Exmouth is July, August, September. The season runs May to Dec. In September the water sits around 23°C, so pack a rash vest or 2 mm, and the typical wave is 1.1 m. The nearest airport is PHE (492 km) and the nearest town is Exmouth (14 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan99%30%1.0 m27°Cboardies
Feb99%27%0.9 m27°Cboardies
Mar89%32%0.8 m28°Cboardies
Apr90%39%0.9 m27°Cboardies
May86%41%0.9 m27°Cboardies
Jun89%48%1.0 m25°Cvest
Jul99%68%1.1 m23°Cvest
Aug95%71%1.1 m23°Cvest
Sep96%72%1.1 m23°Cvest
Oct99%67%1.1 m24°Cvest
Nov98%40%1.0 m24°Cvest
Dec99%44%1.0 m26°Cboardies

What is under Dunes - Exmouth

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor is still shallow, 20 m.

Depth 8 km out20 m
Depth 4 km out15 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 75.5

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%
18.6
Best days 22.4%
7.0
Clean days 18.4%
18.4
Consistency 10.2%
10.2
Season spread 4.1%
4.1
Water comfort 6.1%
5.4
Access 4.1%
1.6

The detail

Faces 335° with 39% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 80% of days. Mean peak period 12.8 s. Days over 3 m: 0%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 1.4 m, with a peak period of 15 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 78%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates -21.801, 114.139 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€1,470/ month
typically €1,300 – €1,650
Rent, one bedroom€776
Groceries€308
Eating out€176
Getting around€104
Phone + internet€112
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€2,880/ month
typically €2,530 – €3,230
Somewhere to stay€1,700
Eating out€604
Car, transfers, fuel€392
Data + extras€184
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Remote spot, so the local estimate is 20% below the country average. Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for Australia (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.

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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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