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Meerensee beach 85.0

#460 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇿🇦 South Africa · Western Cape · near Hermanus

Works almost every day, no off season, real size comes through.

Works all yearBig waveAdvanced
Meerensee beach, South Africa
Photo: Olga Ernst · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Surf score85.0 /100
Surfable days96% of the year
Clean days42% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell68% period 11 s+
Typical size2.2 m 7.3 ft median
Water17°C a 3/2 wetsuit

Best time to surf Meerensee beach

The best time to surf Meerensee beach is April, May, June. The season runs Mar to Jun. In April the water sits around 18°C, so pack a 3/2 wetsuit, and the typical wave is 2.1 m. The nearest airport is CPT (64 km) and the nearest town is Hermanus (13 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan99%34%2.0 m19°C3/2
Feb100%26%2.0 m18°C3/2
Mar99%40%2.0 m18°C3/2
Apr99%70%2.1 m18°C3/2
May97%48%2.3 m16°C3/2
Jun91%48%2.6 m16°C4/3
Jul89%37%2.8 m15°C4/3
Aug91%47%2.7 m15°C4/3
Sep97%34%2.4 m16°C4/3
Oct98%48%2.3 m16°C3/2
Nov99%32%2.1 m17°C3/2
Dec100%43%2.0 m17°C3/2

What is under Meerensee beach

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor drops to 81 m, shoaling steadily over the last kilometres.

Depth 8 km out81 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 85.0

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%
17.4
Best days 22.4%
18.0
Clean days 18.4%
18.4
Consistency 10.2%
10.2
Season spread 4.1%
4.1
Water comfort 6.1%
1.7
Access 4.1%
3.8

The detail

Faces 246° with 39% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 63% of days. Mean peak period 11.8 s. Days over 3 m: 16%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 3.3 m, with a peak period of 14 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 1%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates -34.370, 19.097 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€1,010/ month
typically €889 – €1,130
Rent, one bedroom€530
Groceries€210
Eating out€120
Getting around€70
Phone + internet€75
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€1,960/ month
typically €1,720 – €2,200
Somewhere to stay€1,160
Eating out€415
Car, transfers, fuel€265
Data + extras€125
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
48% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

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
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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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