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Pump House 54.1

#3695 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇺🇸 United States of America · Florida · near West Palm Beach

Very consistent, wind is the enemy here, peaks in September.

Warm waterBeginner friendlyBeginner
Pump House, United States of America
Photo: David Broad · CC BY 3.0 · source
Surf score54.1 /100
Surfable days77% of the year
Clean days4% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell8% period 11 s+
Typical size0.9 m 2.9 ft median
Water28°C boardshorts

Best time to surf Pump House

The best time to surf Pump House is January, September, October. It rarely works. In September the water sits around 30°C, so pack boardshorts, and the typical wave is 0.9 m. The nearest airport is PBI (11 km) and the nearest town is West Palm Beach (10 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan89%8%1.2 m25°Cboardies
Feb96%2%1.1 m24°Cvest
Mar93%6%1.1 m25°Cboardies
Apr91%2%1.0 m26°Cboardies
May90%2%0.9 m28°Cboardies
Jun45%0%0.6 m29°Cboardies
Jul40%0%0.6 m30°Cboardies
Aug42%0%0.6 m31°Cboardies
Sep71%13%0.9 m30°Cboardies
Oct91%10%0.9 m29°Cboardies
Nov95%5%1.2 m27°Cboardies
Dec85%7%1.1 m26°Cboardies

What is under Pump House

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor sits over 55 m. Alongside the bank the survey finds a channel, 75 m against 55 m, deep enough to bend swell onto one peak instead of spreading it along the beach.

Depth 8 km out55 m
Depth 4 km out81 m
Channel beside it75 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 54.1

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.

Wave quality 34.7%
14.2
Best days 22.4%
8.7
Clean days 18.4%
1.6
Consistency 10.2%
9.2
Season spread 4.1%
3.0
Water comfort 6.1%
6.1
Access 4.1%
4.1

The detail

Faces 90° with 53% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 56% of days. Mean peak period 7.6 s. Days over 3 m: 1%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 1.8 m, with a peak period of 10 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 68%. Months that work: 9 of 12. Coordinates 26.774, -80.029 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€2,460/ month
typically €2,160 – €2,760
Rent, one bedroom€1,290
Groceries€517
Eating out€295
Getting around€172
Phone + internet€184
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€4,800/ month
typically €4,220 – €5,370
Somewhere to stay€2,830
Eating out€1,010
Car, transfers, fuel€652
Data + extras€308
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Airport and town on the doorstep, so the local estimate is 23% above the country average. 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
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

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