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Kavieng Rights 63.8

#2810 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea · New Ireland · near Kavieng

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

Works all yearWarm waterBeginner friendlyRemoteBeginner
Surf score63.8 /100
Surfable days96% of the year
Clean days9% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell12% period 11 s+
Typical size1.0 m 3.2 ft median
Water30°C boardshorts

Best time to surf Kavieng Rights

The best time to surf Kavieng Rights is January, November, December. It rarely works. In November the water sits around 30°C, so pack boardshorts, and the typical wave is 1.0 m. The nearest airport is WWK (799 km) and the nearest town is Kavieng (3 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan100%14%1.3 m30°Cboardies
Feb100%7%1.4 m30°Cboardies
Mar100%5%1.2 m30°Cboardies
Apr100%8%1.1 m30°Cboardies
May97%5%0.9 m30°Cboardies
Jun89%2%0.8 m30°Cboardies
Jul90%0%0.8 m30°Cboardies
Aug89%2%0.8 m29°Cboardies
Sep93%4%0.8 m30°Cboardies
Oct100%9%0.8 m30°Cboardies
Nov100%18%1.0 m30°Cboardies
Dec100%11%1.2 m30°Cboardies

What is under Kavieng Rights

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor drops to 80 m. Alongside the bank the survey finds a channel, 109 m against 80 m, deep enough to bend swell onto one peak instead of spreading it along the beach.

Depth 8 km out80 m
Depth 4 km out46 m
Channel beside it109 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 63.8

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%
22.9
Best days 22.4%
6.6
Clean days 18.4%
3.7
Consistency 10.2%
10.2
Season spread 4.1%
4.1
Water comfort 6.1%
6.1
Access 4.1%
1.6

The detail

Faces 332° with 69% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 71% of days. Mean peak period 9.2 s. Days over 3 m: 0%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 1.4 m, with a peak period of 11 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 76%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates -2.561, 150.790 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€1,050/ month
typically €922 – €1,170
Rent, one bedroom€548
Groceries€220
Eating out€124
Getting around€72
Phone + internet€80
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€2,040/ month
typically €1,800 – €2,280
Somewhere to stay€1,200
Eating out€428
Car, transfers, fuel€276
Data + extras€132
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 Papua New Guinea (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.

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