WorldDominican Republic › Puerto Plata › Sosua

Sosua 70.0

#2376 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic · Puerto Plata · near Puerto Plata

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

Works all yearWarm waterIntermediate
Sosua, Dominican Republic
Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/stupiddingo/ · CC BY 2.0 · source
Surf score70.0 /100
Surfable days100% of the year
Clean days12% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell13% period 11 s+
Typical size1.1 m 3.7 ft median
Water28°C boardshorts

Best time to surf Sosua

The best time to surf Sosua is January, September, October. It rarely works. In September the water sits around 29°C, so pack boardshorts, and the typical wave is 1.1 m. The nearest airport is STI (38 km) and the nearest town is Puerto Plata (18 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan100%22%1.3 m27°Cboardies
Feb99%7%1.4 m26°Cboardies
Mar100%19%1.4 m26°Cboardies
Apr100%9%1.1 m27°Cboardies
May100%7%1.1 m27°Cboardies
Jun97%0%0.9 m27°Cboardies
Jul99%0%1.0 m28°Cboardies
Aug99%1%0.9 m28°Cboardies
Sep100%28%1.1 m29°Cboardies
Oct98%25%1.1 m29°Cboardies
Nov100%13%1.2 m29°Cboardies
Dec100%17%1.3 m28°Cboardies

What is under Sosua

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor drops to 61 m.

Depth 8 km out61 m
Depth 4 km out21 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 70.0

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%
22.8
Best days 22.4%
8.1
Clean days 18.4%
5.4
Consistency 10.2%
10.2
Season spread 4.1%
4.1
Water comfort 6.1%
6.1
Access 4.1%
4.0

The detail

Faces 325° with 33% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 97% of days. Mean peak period 8.7 s. Days over 3 m: 0%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 1.6 m, with a peak period of 11 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 58%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates 19.767, -70.516 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€950/ month
typically €836 – €1,060
Rent, one bedroom€500
Groceries€200
Eating out€115
Getting around€65
Phone + internet€70
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€1,850/ month
typically €1,630 – €2,070
Somewhere to stay€1,100
Eating out€390
Car, transfers, fuel€250
Data + extras€120
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for Dominican Republic (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

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