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Spooks 85.0

#463 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇦🇺 Australia · South Australia · near Port Lincoln

Works almost every day, no off season, real size comes through.

Works all yearBig waveRemoteAdvanced
Spooks, Australia
Photo: Wikipedian · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source · photo taken 2.3 km from the spot
Surf score85.0 /100
Surfable days90% of the year
Clean days35% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell81% period 11 s+
Typical size2.5 m 8.4 ft median
Water17°C a 3/2 wetsuit

Best time to surf Spooks

The best time to surf Spooks is February, April, October. The season runs Apr to Apr. In April the water sits around 19°C, so pack a 3/2 wetsuit, and the typical wave is 2.6 m. The nearest airport is ADL (206 km) and the nearest town is Port Lincoln (164 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan100%23%2.3 m20°C2mm
Feb97%39%2.3 m20°C2mm
Mar92%32%2.2 m20°C2mm
Apr89%51%2.6 m19°C3/2
May86%39%2.8 m18°C3/2
Jun89%39%2.8 m16°C3/2
Jul77%27%2.9 m15°C4/3
Aug84%30%3.1 m14°C4/3
Sep86%33%3.0 m14°C4/3
Oct95%42%2.5 m16°C4/3
Nov94%34%2.4 m16°C3/2
Dec96%28%2.2 m18°C3/2

What is under Spooks

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor is still shallow, 20 m.

Depth 8 km out20 m
Depth 4 km out4 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 85.0

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%
20.1
Best days 22.4%
20.6
Clean days 18.4%
15.9
Consistency 10.2%
10.2
Season spread 4.1%
4.1
Water comfort 6.1%
1.8
Access 4.1%
0.9

The detail

Faces 220° with 67% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 43% of days. Mean peak period 13.0 s. Days over 3 m: 31%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 4.0 m, with a peak period of 15 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 0%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates -36.043, 136.705 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€1,560/ month
typically €1,380 – €1,750
Rent, one bedroom€824
Groceries€327
Eating out€187
Getting around€110
Phone + internet€119
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€3,060/ month
typically €2,690 – €3,430
Somewhere to stay€1,800
Eating out€642
Car, transfers, fuel€416
Data + extras€196
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Remote spot, so the local estimate is 15% below the country average. 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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