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Tres palmas 75.6

#1825 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇵🇷 Puerto Rico · Puerto Rico · near Mayagüez

Works almost every day, no off season, boardshorts water.

Works all yearWarm waterIntermediate
Tres palmas, Puerto Rico
Photo: M S · CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
Surf score75.6 /100
Surfable days93% of the year
Clean days20% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell21% period 11 s+
Typical size1.1 m 3.5 ft median
Water28°C boardshorts

Best time to surf Tres palmas

The best time to surf Tres palmas is January, October, December. It rarely works. In December the water sits around 28°C, so pack boardshorts, and the typical wave is 1.4 m. The nearest airport is PUJ (119 km) and the nearest town is Mayagüez (20 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan100%34%1.4 m27°Cboardies
Feb99%18%1.4 m27°Cboardies
Mar99%29%1.4 m27°Cboardies
Apr97%16%1.1 m27°Cboardies
May86%12%0.9 m28°Cboardies
Jun79%1%0.8 m28°Cboardies
Jul88%0%0.8 m29°Cboardies
Aug77%1%0.8 m29°Cboardies
Sep95%31%1.1 m30°Cboardies
Oct94%36%1.1 m30°Cboardies
Nov100%26%1.2 m29°Cboardies
Dec100%37%1.4 m28°Cboardies

What is under Tres palmas

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor sits over 50 m. Alongside the bank the survey finds a channel, 128 m against 50 m, deep enough to bend swell onto one peak instead of spreading it along the beach.

Depth 8 km out50 m
Depth 4 km out17 m
Channel beside it128 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 75.6

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%
23.8
Best days 22.4%
8.9
Clean days 18.4%
9.1
Consistency 10.2%
10.2
Season spread 4.1%
4.1
Water comfort 6.1%
6.1
Access 4.1%
3.2

The detail

Faces 270° with 61% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 98% of days. Mean peak period 9.1 s. Days over 3 m: 1%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 1.8 m, with a peak period of 12 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 60%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates 18.345, -67.262 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€1,770/ month
typically €1,560 – €1,980
Rent, one bedroom€934
Groceries€373
Eating out€211
Getting around€124
Phone + internet€135
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€3,470/ month
typically €3,050 – €3,880
Somewhere to stay€2,040
Eating out€729
Car, transfers, fuel€470
Data + extras€221
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Airport and town on the doorstep, so the local estimate is 8% above the country average. Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for Puerto Rico (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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