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Puerto Escondido 87.8

#230 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇲🇽 Mexico · Oaxaca · near Puerto Escondido

Works almost every day, clean mornings are the norm, no off season.

Works all yearWarm waterIntermediate
Puerto Escondido, Mexico
Photo: Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
Surf score87.8 /100
Surfable days99% of the year
Clean days82% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell86% period 11 s+
Typical size1.2 m 4.1 ft median
Water30°C boardshorts

Best time to surf Puerto Escondido

The best time to surf Puerto Escondido is May, July, October. The season runs all year. In May the water sits around 31°C, so pack boardshorts, and the typical wave is 1.4 m. The nearest airport is OAX (133 km) and the nearest town is Puerto Escondido (2 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan92%56%0.9 m29°Cboardies
Feb100%72%1.0 m29°Cboardies
Mar99%88%1.1 m29°Cboardies
Apr100%84%1.2 m30°Cboardies
May100%95%1.4 m31°Cboardies
Jun100%83%1.5 m31°Cboardies
Jul100%94%1.4 m31°Cboardies
Aug100%81%1.4 m31°Cboardies
Sep100%86%1.4 m31°Cboardies
Oct100%90%1.4 m30°Cboardies
Nov100%88%1.2 m30°Cboardies
Dec95%59%0.9 m28°Cboardies

What is under Puerto Escondido

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor sits over 46 m.

Depth 8 km out46 m
Depth 4 km out34 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 87.8

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%
24.8
Best days 22.4%
9.2
Clean days 18.4%
18.4
Consistency 10.2%
10.2
Season spread 4.1%
4.1
Water comfort 6.1%
6.1
Access 4.1%
3.2

The detail

Faces 215° with 28% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 96% of days. Mean peak period 13.4 s. Days over 3 m: 0%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 1.7 m, with a peak period of 16 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 46%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates 15.847, -97.055 (OpenStreetMap).

big wave

What it costs to be here

Living here
€1,230/ month
typically €1,080 – €1,380
Rent, one bedroom€645
Groceries€260
Eating out€150
Getting around€85
Phone + internet€90
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€2,400/ month
typically €2,110 – €2,690
Somewhere to stay€1,420
Eating out€505
Car, transfers, fuel€325
Data + extras€155
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for Mexico (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
Own a cabin on a surf coast in Sumba

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

Campus Point🇺🇸 United States of America · score 88.0Perro Fino🇨🇷 Costa Rica · score 90.0Puntilla Sanfuentes🇨🇱 Chile · score 89.1Resorts🇮🇩 Indonesia · score 85.6
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