Santa Cruz Island 79.2
#1301 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇺🇸 United States of America · California · near Santa Barbara
Works almost every day, no off season, gentle enough to learn.
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Best time to surf Santa Cruz Island
The best time to surf Santa Cruz Island is January, March, December. The season runs Dec to Jan. In January the water sits around 16°C, so pack a 4/3 with boots, and the typical wave is 1.2 m. The nearest airport is SBA (53 km) and the nearest town is Santa Barbara (48 km).
| Month | Surfable | Clean | Size | Water | Suit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 97% | 48% | 1.2 m | 16°C | 4/3 |
| Feb | 95% | 30% | 1.0 m | 16°C | 4/3 |
| Mar | 96% | 39% | 1.1 m | 16°C | 4/3 |
| Apr | 99% | 33% | 1.2 m | 16°C | 4/3 |
| May | 99% | 30% | 1.2 m | 15°C | 4/3 |
| Jun | 100% | 24% | 0.9 m | 17°C | 3/2 |
| Jul | 98% | 31% | 0.9 m | 18°C | 3/2 |
| Aug | 99% | 19% | 0.9 m | 20°C | 2mm |
| Sep | 99% | 29% | 0.9 m | 20°C | 2mm |
| Oct | 95% | 37% | 0.9 m | 18°C | 3/2 |
| Nov | 90% | 34% | 0.8 m | 17°C | 3/2 |
| Dec | 94% | 40% | 1.1 m | 16°C | 3/2 |
What is under Santa Cruz Island
Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor is still shallow, 8 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 79.2
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 170° with 58% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 84% of days. Mean peak period 11.3 s. Days over 3 m: 0%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 1.7 m, with a peak period of 14 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 68%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates 33.980, -119.636 (OpenStreetMap).
What it costs to be here
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.
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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