Where to surf in November

November is the Atlantic's month with one Pacific exception. Six Atlantic countries are at their peak, the Canaries, Iceland, Morocco, Portugal, northern Spain and Senegal, and they are the coasts July left out. The seventh is Mexico, where the southern swell has dropped back to a size Zicatela can be surfed at rather than survived, and the dry season holds the mornings offshore. The water on the Atlantic six runs from 8° in Iceland to 27° in Senegal, which is the whole distance between those two trips. France and Wales sit just under them, on autumn banks the first winter storm will flatten. The southern hemisphere has dropped back everywhere.

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

Country	November on that coast	Water	Peak season
Canary Islands	Excellent	22°	Peak
Iceland	Excellent	8°	Peak
Mexico	Excellent	–	Peak
Morocco	Excellent	19°	Peak
Portugal	Excellent	17°	Peak
Senegal	Excellent	27°	Peak
Spain	Excellent	16°	Peak
France	Very good	16°	–
Ireland	Very good	11°	–
Panama	Very good	–	–
Sri Lanka	Very good	29°	–
Wales	Very good	12°	–
Colombia	Good	27°	–
Costa Rica	Good	28°	–
Mozambique	Good	26°	–
Nicaragua	Good	28°	–
South Africa	Good	18°	–

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 November

Other months