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Horton 50.8

#3998 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Swansea · near Swansea

Very consistent, wind is the enemy here, peaks in November.

Beginner friendlyBeginner
Horton, United Kingdom
Photo: 00 C me · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Surf score50.8 /100
Surfable days72% of the year
Clean days7% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell18% period 11 s+
Typical size1.0 m 3.1 ft median
Water13°C a 4/3 with boots

Best time to surf Horton

The best time to surf Horton is January, March, November. It rarely works. In November the water sits around 13°C, so pack a 5/4 with boots and hood, and the typical wave is 1.4 m. The nearest airport is CWL (62 km) and the nearest town is Swansea (20 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan81%12%1.3 m8°C6/5
Feb95%7%1.7 m8°C6/5
Mar85%11%1.1 m9°C6/5
Apr64%10%0.8 m10°C5/4
May61%4%0.7 m13°C5/4
Jun49%2%0.6 m15°C4/3
Jul45%1%0.6 m18°C3/2
Aug58%0%0.8 m19°C2mm
Sep68%1%0.8 m17°C3/2
Oct85%3%1.2 m15°C4/3
Nov89%21%1.4 m13°C5/4
Dec89%4%1.6 m10°C5/4

What is under Horton

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor falls away into open ocean, 779 m, deep right up to the door, so swell arrives with its energy intact.

Depth 8 km out779 m
Depth 4 km out525 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 50.8

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%
13.3
Best days 22.4%
12.1
Clean days 18.4%
2.9
Consistency 10.2%
8.5
Season spread 4.1%
3.4
Water comfort 6.1%
0.0
Access 4.1%
3.7

The detail

Faces 180° with 42% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 41% of days. Mean peak period 9.1 s. Days over 3 m: 4%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 2.3 m, with a peak period of 12 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 52%. Months that work: 10 of 12. Coordinates 51.549, -4.202 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€1,980/ month
typically €1,740 – €2,210
Rent, one bedroom€1,040
Groceries€416
Eating out€238
Getting around€140
Phone + internet€146
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€3,860/ month
typically €3,390 – €4,320
Somewhere to stay€2,270
Eating out€810
Car, transfers, fuel€524
Data + extras€248
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 United Kingdom (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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