Where to surf in March

March puts two coasts at their peak and they could hardly be less alike. Sri Lanka's south coast is the certainty: easy to reach, easy to surf, and the only sure thing on the page this month. The other is the Chocó in Colombia, where a reef almost nobody has surfed returns sixteen clean days out of thirty, and which is reached by light aircraft into the jungle and then by boat, because there is no road. Nine more countries are in good season. It is the end of the Atlantic winter and the beginning of nothing, so if you want certainty the Sri Lankan south coast is the one offering it; otherwise Portugal, Morocco, the Canaries, northern Spain and Senegal are all still worth the flight.

Sorted by the coasts at their peak in March, then by verdict.

Country	March on that coast	Water	Peak season
Colombia	Excellent	27°	Peak
Sri Lanka	Excellent	29°	Peak
Canary Islands	Very good	18°	–
Iceland	Very good	6°	–
Ireland	Very good	8°	–
Morocco	Very good	18°	–
Panama	Very good	–	–
Portugal	Very good	14°	–
Senegal	Very good	19°	–
South Africa	Very good	20°	–
Spain	Very good	13°	–
Costa Rica	Good	29°	–
France	Good	13°	–
Mexico	Good	–	–
Mozambique	Good	28°	–
Nicaragua	Good	25°	–
Wales	Good	8°	–

Verdicts are read from published surf guides and signed by us. Temperatures are monthly means published for one named break per country, not an average of a coastline. Swell height is left out on purpose: no source publishes it month by month for all of these coasts, and a figure measured one way here and modelled another way there would not compare.

Where to surf in March

Other months