WorldSamoa › Palauli › Pebbles

Pebbles 82.5

#775 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇼🇸 Samoa · Palauli · near Apia

Works almost every day, no off season, boardshorts water.

Works all yearWarm waterIntermediate
Surf score82.5 /100
Surfable days100% of the year
Clean days36% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell66% period 11 s+
Typical size1.1 m 3.7 ft median
Water29°C boardshorts

Best time to surf Pebbles

The best time to surf Pebbles is January, March, April. The season runs Jan to Jan. In January the water sits around 30°C, so pack boardshorts, and the typical wave is 1.2 m. The nearest airport is APW (47 km) and the nearest town is Apia (71 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan100%42%1.2 m30°Cboardies
Feb100%38%1.3 m29°Cboardies
Mar100%42%1.1 m29°Cboardies
Apr100%41%1.1 m30°Cboardies
May100%37%1.1 m29°Cboardies
Jun100%33%1.2 m28°Cboardies
Jul100%33%1.2 m28°Cboardies
Aug100%31%1.2 m28°Cboardies
Sep100%35%1.2 m28°Cboardies
Oct100%31%1.1 m28°Cboardies
Nov100%34%1.0 m29°Cboardies
Dec100%35%1.1 m29°Cboardies

What is under Pebbles

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor sits over 49 m.

Depth 8 km out49 m
Depth 4 km out18 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 82.5

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%
23.5
Best days 22.4%
7.9
Clean days 18.4%
16.5
Consistency 10.2%
10.2
Season spread 4.1%
4.1
Water comfort 6.1%
6.1
Access 4.1%
3.1

The detail

Faces n/a with 0% open water around it. Friendly morning wind n/a. Mean peak period 12.0 s. Days over 3 m: 0%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 1.5 m, with a peak period of 14 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 61%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates -13.745, -172.422 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€1,180/ month
typically €1,040 – €1,320
Rent, one bedroom€620
Groceries€246
Eating out€140
Getting around€81
Phone + internet€89
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€2,300/ month
typically €2,030 – €2,580
Somewhere to stay€1,360
Eating out€484
Car, transfers, fuel€314
Data + extras€149
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% 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 Samoa (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.

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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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