WorldJapan › Okinawa › Tengan Pier

Tengan Pier 45.0

#4401 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇯🇵 Japan · Okinawa · near Naha

Very consistent, wind is the enemy here, no off season.

Works all yearWarm waterBeginner friendlyRemoteBeginner
Tengan Pier, Japan
Photo: Nelo Hotsuma · CC BY 2.0 · source
Surf score45.0 /100
Surfable days83% of the year
Clean days2% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell5% period 11 s+
Typical size1.0 m 3.2 ft median
Water26°C boardshorts

Best time to surf Tengan Pier

The best time to surf Tengan Pier is February, August, September. It rarely works. In September the water sits around 30°C, so pack boardshorts, and the typical wave is 0.9 m. The nearest airport is TPE (679 km) and the nearest town is Naha (28 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan97%0%1.1 m22°C2mm
Feb95%1%1.1 m21°C2mm
Mar92%1%1.0 m22°C2mm
Apr91%1%0.9 m24°Cvest
May80%1%0.8 m24°Cvest
Jun51%0%0.6 m27°Cboardies
Jul53%0%0.6 m29°Cboardies
Aug64%3%0.8 m29°Cboardies
Sep77%9%0.9 m30°Cboardies
Oct97%1%1.2 m29°Cboardies
Nov99%0%1.2 m26°Cboardies
Dec99%0%1.4 m24°Cvest

What is under Tengan Pier

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor sits over 26 m.

Depth 8 km out26 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 45.0

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%
8.9
Best days 22.4%
8.9
Clean days 18.4%
0.3
Consistency 10.2%
9.9
Season spread 4.1%
4.1
Water comfort 6.1%
5.4
Access 4.1%
1.4

The detail

Faces 45° with 33% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 34% of days. Mean peak period 7.3 s. Days over 3 m: 1%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 1.8 m, with a peak period of 10 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 64%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates 26.404, 127.849 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€1,140/ month
typically €1,010 – €1,280
Rent, one bedroom€600
Groceries€240
Eating out€136
Getting around€80
Phone + internet€84
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€2,220/ month
typically €1,960 – €2,490
Somewhere to stay€1,310
Eating out€468
Car, transfers, fuel€304
Data + extras€144
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Remote spot, so the local estimate is 20% below the country average. Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for Japan (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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