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Kilauea Bay Beach (Rock Quarry) 80.6

#1083 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇺🇸 United States of America · Hawaii · near Lihue

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

Works all yearWarm waterIntermediate
Kilauea Bay Beach (Rock Quarry), United States of America
Photo: Aaron Lucas · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Surf score80.6 /100
Surfable days97% of the year
Clean days15% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell66% period 11 s+
Typical size1.3 m 4.3 ft median
Water25°C boardshorts

Best time to surf Kilauea Bay Beach (Rock Quarry)

The best time to surf Kilauea Bay Beach (Rock Quarry) is January, February, November. It rarely works. In November the water sits around 26°C, so pack boardshorts, and the typical wave is 1.5 m. The nearest airport is LIH (27 km) and the nearest town is Lihue (27 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan100%19%1.8 m25°Cvest
Feb98%25%1.7 m24°Cvest
Mar99%16%1.6 m24°Cvest
Apr97%19%1.4 m24°Cvest
May92%13%1.1 m25°Cvest
Jun93%16%1.0 m25°Cboardies
Jul98%0%1.1 m26°Cboardies
Aug92%9%1.0 m27°Cboardies
Sep95%2%1.1 m27°Cboardies
Oct97%13%1.3 m27°Cboardies
Nov98%38%1.5 m26°Cboardies
Dec100%19%1.7 m25°Cboardies

What is under Kilauea Bay Beach (Rock Quarry)

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor falls away into open ocean, 1,494 m, deep right up to the door, so swell arrives with its energy intact.

Depth 8 km out1494 m
Depth 4 km out533 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 80.6

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%
28.0
Best days 22.4%
11.5
Clean days 18.4%
6.8
Consistency 10.2%
10.2
Season spread 4.1%
4.1
Water comfort 6.1%
5.4
Access 4.1%
3.8

The detail

Faces 10° with 47% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 23% of days. Mean peak period 12.5 s. Days over 3 m: 1%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 2.1 m, with a peak period of 15 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 41%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates 22.218, -159.385 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€2,000/ month
typically €1,760 – €2,240
Rent, one bedroom€1,050
Groceries€420
Eating out€240
Getting around€140
Phone + internet€150
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€3,900/ month
typically €3,430 – €4,370
Somewhere to stay€2,300
Eating out€820
Car, transfers, fuel€530
Data + extras€250
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

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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