WorldThailand › Rayong › Ko Samet

Ko Samet 18.7

#5670 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇹🇭 Thailand · Rayong · near Rayong

Needs the right swell, wind is the enemy here, boardshorts water.

Warm waterBeginner
Ko Samet, Thailand
Photo: Ken Eckert · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Surf score18.7 /100
Surfable days16% of the year
Clean days0% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell0% period 11 s+
Typical size0.3 m 1.1 ft median
Water29°C boardshorts

Best time to surf Ko Samet

It rarely works. The nearest airport is UTP (51 km) and the nearest town is Rayong (22 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan6%0%0.2 m27°Cboardies
Feb5%0%0.3 m28°Cboardies
Mar0%0%0.3 m30°Cboardies
Apr3%0%0.3 m31°Cboardies
May10%0%0.3 m31°Cboardies
Jun30%0%0.5 m30°Cboardies
Jul48%0%0.6 m30°Cboardies
Aug48%0%0.6 m30°Cboardies
Sep23%0%0.4 m29°Cboardies
Oct6%0%0.2 m30°Cboardies
Nov3%0%0.3 m29°Cboardies
Dec14%0%0.3 m28°Cboardies

What is under Ko Samet

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor drops to 116 m, shoaling steadily over the last kilometres. Alongside the bank the survey finds a channel, 196 m against 116 m, deep enough to bend swell onto one peak instead of spreading it along the beach.

Depth 8 km out116 m
Depth 4 km out72 m
Channel beside it196 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 18.7

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%
5.2
Best days 22.4%
0.0
Clean days 18.4%
0.0
Consistency 10.2%
1.1
Season spread 4.1%
0.0
Water comfort 6.1%
6.1
Access 4.1%
3.8

The detail

Faces 5° with 58% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 72% of days. Mean peak period 3.5 s. Days over 3 m: 0%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 0.7 m, with a peak period of 5 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 36%. Months that work: 0 of 12. Coordinates 12.569, 101.454 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€800/ month
typically €704 – €896
Rent, one bedroom€420
Groceries€165
Eating out€95
Getting around€55
Phone + internet€60
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€1,550/ month
typically €1,360 – €1,740
Somewhere to stay€915
Eating out€325
Car, transfers, fuel€210
Data + extras€100
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
48% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for Thailand (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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