Kota Belud 36.6
#4989 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇲🇾 Malaysia · Sabah · near Kota Kinabalu
Wind is the enemy here, peaks in November, boardshorts water.
Best time to surf Kota Belud
The best time to surf Kota Belud is January, November, December. It rarely works. In November the water sits around 30°C, so pack boardshorts, and the typical wave is 0.8 m. The nearest airport is BKI (72 km) and the nearest town is Kota Kinabalu (63 km).
| Month | Surfable | Clean | Size | Water | Suit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 87% | 2% | 1.0 m | 29°C | boardies |
| Feb | 85% | 1% | 0.9 m | 28°C | boardies |
| Mar | 48% | 0% | 0.6 m | 27°C | boardies |
| Apr | 40% | 1% | 0.5 m | 29°C | boardies |
| May | 18% | 0% | 0.4 m | 31°C | boardies |
| Jun | 31% | 0% | 0.4 m | 31°C | boardies |
| Jul | 56% | 0% | 0.7 m | 30°C | boardies |
| Aug | 45% | 0% | 0.6 m | 31°C | boardies |
| Sep | 63% | 0% | 0.7 m | 30°C | boardies |
| Oct | 68% | 2% | 0.8 m | 30°C | boardies |
| Nov | 77% | 7% | 0.8 m | 30°C | boardies |
| Dec | 95% | 5% | 1.1 m | 30°C | boardies |
What is under Kota Belud
Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor is still shallow, 15 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 36.6
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.
The detail
Faces 330° with 42% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 83% of days. Mean peak period 6.9 s. Days over 3 m: 0%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 1.4 m, with a peak period of 9 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 65%. Months that work: 7 of 12. Coordinates 6.445, 116.435 (OpenStreetMap).
What it costs to be here
Remote spot, so the local estimate is 15% below the country average. Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for Malaysia (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.
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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