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Hilo Breakwall 70.0

#2371 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇺🇸 United States of America · Hawaii · near Hilo

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

Works all yearWarm waterIntermediate
Hilo Breakwall, United States of America
Photo: This file was created by Thomas Tunsch. It is not in the public domain and use of this file outside · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Surf score70.0 /100
Surfable days100% of the year
Clean days12% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell20% period 11 s+
Typical size1.5 m 5.0 ft median
Water26°C boardshorts

Best time to surf Hilo Breakwall

The best time to surf Hilo Breakwall is January, October, December. It rarely works. In October the water sits around 27°C, so pack boardshorts, and the typical wave is 1.5 m. The nearest airport is ITO (5 km) and the nearest town is Hilo (4 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan100%20%1.7 m25°Cvest
Feb100%7%1.7 m24°Cvest
Mar100%12%1.7 m24°Cvest
Apr100%6%1.5 m25°Cvest
May100%8%1.4 m25°Cboardies
Jun100%10%1.4 m26°Cboardies
Jul100%8%1.5 m26°Cboardies
Aug100%13%1.4 m27°Cboardies
Sep100%10%1.4 m27°Cboardies
Oct100%21%1.5 m27°Cboardies
Nov100%12%1.6 m26°Cboardies
Dec100%17%1.8 m25°Cboardies

What is under Hilo Breakwall

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor sits over 50 m.

Depth 8 km out50 m
Depth 4 km out32 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 70.0

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%
20.7
Best days 22.4%
10.9
Clean days 18.4%
5.2
Consistency 10.2%
10.2
Season spread 4.1%
4.1
Water comfort 6.1%
5.4
Access 4.1%
4.1

The detail

Faces 35° with 36% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 59% of days. Mean peak period 9.7 s. Days over 3 m: 0%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 2.0 m, with a peak period of 12 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 7%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates 19.743, -155.075 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€2,300/ month
typically €2,020 – €2,580
Rent, one bedroom€1,210
Groceries€483
Eating out€276
Getting around€161
Phone + internet€172
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€4,480/ month
typically €3,950 – €5,020
Somewhere to stay€2,640
Eating out€943
Car, transfers, fuel€610
Data + extras€288
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 United States of America (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
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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.

Spots nearby

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