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Kitchen windows 82.8

#717 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇿🇦 South Africa · Eastern Cape · near Uitenhage

Works almost every day, no off season.

Works all yearAdvanced
Kitchen windows, South Africa
Photo: NJR ZA · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source · photo taken 3.1 km from the spot
Surf score82.8 /100
Surfable days98% of the year
Clean days45% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell60% period 11 s+
Typical size2.1 m 6.8 ft median
Water19°C a 3/2 wetsuit

Best time to surf Kitchen windows

The best time to surf Kitchen windows is May, June, July. The season runs Apr to Aug. In June the water sits around 18°C, so pack a 3/2 wetsuit, and the typical wave is 2.2 m. The nearest airport is PLZ (64 km) and the nearest town is Uitenhage (54 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan100%22%2.0 m21°C2mm
Feb100%38%1.9 m21°C2mm
Mar100%36%1.9 m20°C2mm
Apr99%47%2.0 m19°C2mm
May97%72%2.2 m18°C3/2
Jun96%77%2.2 m18°C3/2
Jul94%73%2.4 m18°C3/2
Aug94%60%2.6 m16°C3/2
Sep97%38%2.2 m18°C3/2
Oct97%42%2.2 m18°C3/2
Nov100%28%2.0 m19°C3/2
Dec100%25%2.0 m19°C2mm

What is under Kitchen windows

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor sits over 32 m. Alongside the bank the survey finds a channel, 62 m against 32 m, deep enough to bend swell onto one peak instead of spreading it along the beach.

Depth 8 km out32 m
Depth 4 km out68 m
Channel beside it62 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 82.8

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%
16.4
Best days 22.4%
16.8
Clean days 18.4%
18.4
Consistency 10.2%
10.2
Season spread 4.1%
4.1
Water comfort 6.1%
2.5
Access 4.1%
3.2

The detail

Faces 110° with 39% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 76% of days. Mean peak period 11.4 s. Days over 3 m: 11%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 3.1 m, with a peak period of 13 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 2%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates -34.058, 24.927 (OpenStreetMap).

also known as Jeffreys Bay · WSL Championship Tour

What it costs to be here

Living here
€858/ month
typically €755 – €962
Rent, one bedroom€450
Groceries€178
Eating out€102
Getting around€60
Phone + internet€64
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€1,670/ month
typically €1,470 – €1,870
Somewhere to stay€986
Eating out€353
Car, transfers, fuel€225
Data + extras€106
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
48% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Remote spot, so the local estimate is 15% below the country average. Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for South Africa (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
Own a cabin on a surf coast in Sumba

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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