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St. Andrews State Park 18.8

#5668 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇺🇸 United States of America · Florida · near Panama City

Needs the right swell, wind is the enemy here, gentle enough to learn.

Beginner
St. Andrews State Park, United States of America
Photo: Yamaha WaterCraft · CC BY 2.0 · source
Surf score18.8 /100
Surfable days29% of the year
Clean days0% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell0% period 11 s+
Typical size0.4 m 1.4 ft median
Water23°C a rash vest or 2 mm

Best time to surf St. Andrews State Park

It rarely works. The nearest airport is TLH (137 km) and the nearest town is Panama City (8 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan55%0%0.6 m16°C4/3
Feb37%0%0.5 m15°C4/3
Mar36%0%0.5 m19°C2mm
Apr41%0%0.5 m22°Cvest
May24%0%0.4 m26°Cboardies
Jun15%0%0.4 m29°Cboardies
Jul13%0%0.3 m30°Cboardies
Aug16%0%0.3 m30°Cboardies
Sep21%0%0.4 m29°Cboardies
Oct23%0%0.4 m26°Cboardies
Nov25%0%0.4 m21°C2mm
Dec46%0%0.6 m18°C3/2

What is under St. Andrews State Park

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor drops to 92 m.

Depth 8 km out92 m
Depth 4 km out67 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 18.8

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%
4.9
Best days 22.4%
0.8
Clean days 18.4%
0.0
Consistency 10.2%
2.8
Season spread 4.1%
0.0
Water comfort 6.1%
4.5
Access 4.1%
3.2

The detail

Faces 184° with 50% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 72% of days. Mean peak period 4.6 s. Days over 3 m: 0%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 0.9 m, with a peak period of 6 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 52%. Months that work: 1 of 12. Coordinates 30.125, -85.735 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€2,000/ month
typically €1,760 – €2,240
Rent, one bedroom€1,050
Groceries€420
Eating out€240
Getting around€140
Phone + internet€150
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€3,900/ month
typically €3,430 – €4,370
Somewhere to stay€2,300
Eating out€820
Car, transfers, fuel€530
Data + extras€250
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

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

EL Playon🇵🇦 Panama · score 37.8Chalupy🇵🇱 Poland · score 37.5Tam tam🇱🇧 Lebanon · score 37.9Saporetti🇮🇹 Italy · score 37.0
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