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UAQ Beach 20.8

#5630 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates · Umm Al Qaywayn · near Umm al Qaywayn

Needs the right swell, wind is the enemy here, boardshorts water.

Warm waterBeginner
UAQ Beach, United Arab Emirates
Photo: Sam Nabi from Paris, France · CC BY-SA 2.0 · source · photo taken 1.5 km from the spot
Surf score20.8 /100
Surfable days25% of the year
Clean days0% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell0% period 11 s+
Typical size0.4 m 1.3 ft median
Water29°C boardshorts

Best time to surf UAQ Beach

It rarely works. The nearest airport is SHJ (32 km) and the nearest town is Umm al Qaywayn (5 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan43%0%0.5 m22°Cvest
Feb43%0%0.5 m23°Cvest
Mar41%0%0.5 m24°Cvest
Apr27%0%0.4 m25°Cvest
May35%0%0.5 m30°Cboardies
Jun25%0%0.5 m32°Cboardies
Jul8%0%0.4 m34°Cboardies
Aug2%0%0.4 m34°Cboardies
Sep7%0%0.3 m34°Cboardies
Oct6%0%0.3 m32°Cboardies
Nov31%0%0.4 m29°Cboardies
Dec28%0%0.4 m26°Cboardies

What is under UAQ Beach

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor drops to 68 m.

Depth 8 km out68 m
Depth 4 km out38 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 20.8

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%
4.4
Best days 22.4%
1.2
Clean days 18.4%
0.0
Consistency 10.2%
2.2
Season spread 4.1%
0.0
Water comfort 6.1%
6.1
Access 4.1%
4.1

The detail

Faces 325° with 58% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 96% of days. Mean peak period 4.1 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): 42%. Months that work: 0 of 12. Coordinates 25.605, 55.579 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€1,610/ month
typically €1,420 – €1,800
Rent, one bedroom€845
Groceries€339
Eating out€195
Getting around€115
Phone + internet€121
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€3,140/ month
typically €2,760 – €3,520
Somewhere to stay€1,850
Eating out€661
Car, transfers, fuel€425
Data + extras€201
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 15% above the country average. Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for United Arab Emirates (2024, 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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