WorldAustralia › New South Wales › Soldiers

Soldiers 58.2

#3352 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇦🇺 Australia · New South Wales · near Central Coast

Works almost every day, wind is the enemy here, no off season.

Works all yearIntermediate
Soldiers, Australia
Photo: Annette Teng · CC BY 3.0 · source
Surf score58.2 /100
Surfable days99% of the year
Clean days11% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell15% period 11 s+
Typical size1.3 m 4.2 ft median
Water21°C a 2 mm shorty

Best time to surf Soldiers

The best time to surf Soldiers is April, May, August. It rarely works. In August the water sits around 18°C, so pack a 3/2 wetsuit, and the typical wave is 1.2 m. The nearest airport is SYD (81 km) and the nearest town is Central Coast (29 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan100%4%1.3 m23°Cvest
Feb99%6%1.5 m24°Cvest
Mar100%6%1.4 m24°Cvest
Apr98%22%1.1 m23°Cvest
May99%18%1.2 m21°C2mm
Jun98%17%1.3 m20°C2mm
Jul99%17%1.3 m19°C3/2
Aug98%24%1.2 m18°C3/2
Sep100%8%1.3 m20°C2mm
Oct100%9%1.4 m20°C2mm
Nov100%3%1.2 m21°C2mm
Dec100%3%1.2 m22°Cvest

What is under Soldiers

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor is still shallow, 22 m.

Depth 8 km out22 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 58.2

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.

Wave quality 34.7%
13.8
Best days 22.4%
10.7
Clean days 18.4%
4.6
Consistency 10.2%
10.2
Season spread 4.1%
4.1
Water comfort 6.1%
3.6
Access 4.1%
3.4

The detail

Faces 119° with 53% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 72% of days. Mean peak period 9.0 s. Days over 3 m: 2%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 2.1 m, with a peak period of 11 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 42%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates -33.291, 151.567 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€1,840/ month
typically €1,620 – €2,060
Rent, one bedroom€970
Groceries€385
Eating out€220
Getting around€130
Phone + internet€140
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€3,600/ month
typically €3,170 – €4,030
Somewhere to stay€2,120
Eating out€755
Car, transfers, fuel€490
Data + extras€230
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for Australia (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.

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