WorldMalaysia › Pahang › Teluk Cempedak

Teluk Cempedak 25.4

#5509 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇲🇾 Malaysia · Pahang · near Kuantan

Wind is the enemy here, peaks in November, boardshorts water.

Warm waterRemoteBeginner
Teluk Cempedak, Malaysia
Photo: Dominic Nelson · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Surf score25.4 /100
Surfable days40% of the year
Clean days1% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell1% period 11 s+
Typical size0.5 m 1.7 ft median
Water29°C boardshorts

Best time to surf Teluk Cempedak

The best time to surf Teluk Cempedak is January, November, December. It rarely works. In November the water sits around 29°C, so pack boardshorts, and the typical wave is 0.6 m. The nearest airport is KUL (219 km) and the nearest town is Kuantan (6 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan91%1%1.0 m28°Cboardies
Feb88%0%0.9 m28°Cboardies
Mar48%0%0.6 m29°Cboardies
Apr23%0%0.5 m30°Cboardies
May1%0%0.3 m31°Cboardies
Jun7%0%0.3 m30°Cboardies
Jul15%0%0.4 m30°Cboardies
Aug25%0%0.5 m30°Cboardies
Sep16%0%0.4 m29°Cboardies
Oct22%1%0.5 m30°Cboardies
Nov55%3%0.6 m29°Cboardies
Dec95%3%1.0 m28°Cboardies

What is under Teluk Cempedak

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor is still shallow, 18 m.

Depth 8 km out18 m
Depth 4 km out16 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 25.4

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%
4.7
Best days 22.4%
3.4
Clean days 18.4%
0.0
Consistency 10.2%
4.3
Season spread 4.1%
1.1
Water comfort 6.1%
6.1
Access 4.1%
2.4

The detail

Faces 140° with 44% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 97% of days. Mean peak period 6.2 s. Days over 3 m: 0%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 1.1 m, with a peak period of 9 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 59%. Months that work: 4 of 12. Coordinates 3.812, 103.373 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€753/ month
typically €663 – €844
Rent, one bedroom€400
Groceries€158
Eating out€93
Getting around€51
Phone + internet€56
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€1,480/ month
typically €1,300 – €1,660
Somewhere to stay€870
Eating out€312
Car, transfers, fuel€200
Data + extras€93
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Remote spot, so the local estimate is 7% below the country average. Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for Malaysia (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.

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