Pontaillac 69.0
#2451 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇫🇷 France · Charente-Maritime · near La Rochelle
Works almost every day, no off season.
Best time to surf Pontaillac
The best time to surf Pontaillac is February, March, November. The season runs Mar to Mar. In November the water sits around 15°C, so pack a 4/3 with boots, and the typical wave is 1.9 m. The nearest airport is BOD (92 km) and the nearest town is La Rochelle (61 km).
| Month | Surfable | Clean | Size | Water | Suit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 85% | 28% | 1.8 m | 10°C | 5/4 |
| Feb | 99% | 37% | 2.0 m | 11°C | 5/4 |
| Mar | 98% | 42% | 1.6 m | 12°C | 5/4 |
| Apr | 91% | 37% | 1.2 m | 14°C | 4/3 |
| May | 94% | 9% | 1.1 m | 17°C | 3/2 |
| Jun | 90% | 9% | 0.9 m | 20°C | 2mm |
| Jul | 81% | 3% | 0.8 m | 20°C | 2mm |
| Aug | 84% | 6% | 0.9 m | 21°C | 2mm |
| Sep | 90% | 20% | 0.9 m | 20°C | 2mm |
| Oct | 94% | 22% | 1.4 m | 18°C | 3/2 |
| Nov | 95% | 65% | 1.9 m | 15°C | 4/3 |
| Dec | 90% | 35% | 2.2 m | 12°C | 5/4 |
What is under Pontaillac
Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor sits over 31 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 69.0
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.
The detail
Faces 205° with 36% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 68% of days. Mean peak period 10.5 s. Days over 3 m: 8%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 2.8 m, with a peak period of 13 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 45%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates 45.626, -1.053 (OpenStreetMap).
Live here
14 homes for sale within 30 km of Pontaillac, up to 60,000 euro. Houses and flats you can move into, never plots of land. Cheapest right now €24,280. Checked 2026-09-13. Listings from Bien'ici and the agents themselves; we take no part in the deal.
€24,280House · 100 m² · 4 roomsRoyan4 km from the spot →
€28,807Flat · 31 m² · 2 roomsRoyan4 km from the spot →
€29,598Flat · 63 m² · 2 roomsRoyan3 km from the spot →
€36,250House · 114 m² · 4 roomsArvert16 km from the spot →
€45,000House · 92 m² · 5 roomsMortagne-sur-Gironde26 km from the spot →
€55,000House · 40 m² · 2 roomsArvert16 km from the spot →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 France (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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