Pornichet 36.1
#5015 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇫🇷 France · Loire-Atlantique · near Nantes
Wind is the enemy here, peaks in November, gentle enough to learn.
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Best time to surf Pornichet
The best time to surf Pornichet is February, November, December. It rarely works. In November the water sits around 15°C, so pack a 4/3 with boots, and the typical wave is 0.9 m. The nearest airport is DOL (298 km) and the nearest town is Nantes (58 km).
| Month | Surfable | Clean | Size | Water | Suit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 64% | 13% | 0.9 m | 10°C | 6/5 |
| Feb | 84% | 19% | 1.0 m | 10°C | 5/4 |
| Mar | 59% | 15% | 0.8 m | 12°C | 5/4 |
| Apr | 38% | 9% | 0.5 m | 14°C | 4/3 |
| May | 40% | 2% | 0.5 m | 16°C | 3/2 |
| Jun | 27% | 1% | 0.5 m | 20°C | 2mm |
| Jul | 28% | 0% | 0.4 m | 20°C | 2mm |
| Aug | 26% | 1% | 0.4 m | 20°C | 2mm |
| Sep | 29% | 2% | 0.4 m | 19°C | 2mm |
| Oct | 61% | 6% | 0.8 m | 17°C | 3/2 |
| Nov | 75% | 24% | 0.9 m | 15°C | 4/3 |
| Dec | 77% | 19% | 1.1 m | 12°C | 5/4 |
What is under Pornichet
Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor is still shallow, 12 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 36.1
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 220° with 47% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 63% of days. Mean peak period 9.4 s. Days over 3 m: 0%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 1.4 m, with a peak period of 13 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 57%. Months that work: 6 of 12. Coordinates 47.264, -2.347 (OpenStreetMap).
Live here
8 homes for sale within 30 km of Pornichet, up to 60,000 euro. Houses and flats you can move into, never plots of land. Cheapest right now €44,548. Checked 2026-09-13. Listings from Bien'ici and the agents themselves; we take no part in the deal.
€44,548Flat · 18 m² · 1 roomSaint-Nazaire11 km from the spot →
€46,360Flat · 25 m² · 1 roomLa Baule-Escoublac5 km from the spot →
€48,990House · 22 m² · 2 roomsSaint-Joachim16 km from the spot →
€52,225Flat · 13 m² · 1 roomSaint-Nazaire11 km from the spot →
€55,000Flat · 23 m² · 1 roomSaint-Nazaire6 km from the spot →
€58,000Flat · 20 m² · 1 roomSaint-Nazaire10 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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