WorldUnited States of America › Hawaii › Puamana

Puamana 78.4

#1412 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇺🇸 United States of America · Hawaii · near Wailuku

Works almost every day, no off season, gentle enough to learn.

Works all yearWarm waterBeginner friendlyBeginner
Surf score78.4 /100
Surfable days93% of the year
Clean days33% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell34% period 11 s+
Typical size0.9 m 3.0 ft median
Water26°C boardshorts

Best time to surf Puamana

The best time to surf Puamana is January, November, December. The season runs Mar to Mar. In January the water sits around 25°C, so pack boardshorts, and the typical wave is 1.4 m. The nearest airport is OGG (24 km) and the nearest town is Wailuku (18 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan99%65%1.4 m25°Cboardies
Feb97%39%1.2 m25°Cvest
Mar99%43%1.1 m24°Cvest
Apr97%33%0.9 m25°Cvest
May86%20%0.8 m25°Cboardies
Jun86%17%0.8 m26°Cboardies
Jul99%13%0.8 m26°Cboardies
Aug83%12%0.8 m27°Cboardies
Sep79%7%0.7 m27°Cboardies
Oct90%38%0.9 m27°Cboardies
Nov95%49%1.0 m26°Cboardies
Dec100%54%1.1 m26°Cboardies

What is under Puamana

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor is still shallow, 20 m.

Depth 8 km out20 m
Depth 4 km out17 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 78.4

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%
20.4
Best days 22.4%
8.5
Clean days 18.4%
15.1
Consistency 10.2%
10.2
Season spread 4.1%
4.1
Water comfort 6.1%
5.6
Access 4.1%
4.0

The detail

Faces 230° with 42% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 96% of days. Mean peak period 10.7 s. Days over 3 m: 0%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 1.6 m, with a peak period of 14 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 75%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates 20.859, -156.670 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€2,000/ month
typically €1,760 – €2,240
Rent, one bedroom€1,050
Groceries€420
Eating out€240
Getting around€140
Phone + internet€150
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€3,900/ month
typically €3,430 – €4,370
Somewhere to stay€2,300
Eating out€820
Car, transfers, fuel€530
Data + extras€250
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for United States of America (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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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

Caspar🇺🇸 United States of America · score 87.0Kona Tiki🇺🇸 United States of America · score 86.3HT's🇮🇩 Indonesia · score 86.2Imperial Beach🇺🇸 United States of America · score 78.7
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