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Lawrencetown 48.0

#4191 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇨🇦 Canada · Nova Scotia · near Halifax

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

Works all yearIntermediate
Lawrencetown, Canada
Photo: Larry LaRose · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Surf score48.0 /100
Surfable days93% of the year
Clean days3% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell6% period 11 s+
Typical size1.2 m 3.9 ft median
Water9°C a 6/5 with boots, gloves and hood

Best time to surf Lawrencetown

The best time to surf Lawrencetown is January, September, October. It rarely works. In October the water sits around 15°C, so pack a 4/3 with boots, and the typical wave is 1.3 m. The nearest airport is YHZ (30 km) and the nearest town is Halifax (20 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan93%6%1.5 m3°C6/5
Feb98%2%1.5 m1°C6/5
Mar95%3%1.4 m1°C6/5
Apr93%1%1.4 m3°C6/5
May90%1%1.0 m6°C6/5
Jun92%0%0.9 m10°C6/5
Jul92%1%0.9 m14°C4/3
Aug87%1%0.8 m19°C3/2
Sep96%8%1.1 m19°C2mm
Oct92%9%1.3 m15°C4/3
Nov99%1%1.6 m10°C5/4
Dec93%2%1.5 m6°C6/5

What is under Lawrencetown

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor is still shallow, 24 m.

Depth 8 km out24 m
Depth 4 km out21 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 48.0

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%
9.1
Best days 22.4%
13.3
Clean days 18.4%
0.9
Consistency 10.2%
10.2
Season spread 4.1%
4.1
Water comfort 6.1%
0.0
Access 4.1%
3.9

The detail

Faces 195° with 39% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 53% of days. Mean peak period 8.3 s. Days over 3 m: 6%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 2.5 m, with a peak period of 10 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 50%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates 44.642, -63.342 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€1,880/ month
typically €1,650 – €2,100
Rent, one bedroom€983
Groceries€394
Eating out€227
Getting around€130
Phone + internet€140
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€3,660/ month
typically €3,220 – €4,100
Somewhere to stay€2,160
Eating out€767
Car, transfers, fuel€497
Data + extras€232
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Airport and town on the doorstep, so the local estimate is 8% above the country average. Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for Canada (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.

Spots nearby

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