The Right-Hander
A right-hand wave breaks from right to left as you look at it from the beach, meaning the surfer rides toward their right. For regular-footers (left foot forward), a right-hand wave is a frontside ride — the body faces the wave, every turn visible, every tube section laid out in full view. For goofies (right foot forward), it's a backhand challenge. The direction of a wave shapes how it's surfed and who surfs it best, which is part of why the world's best rights have their own distinct cultures and histories.
These eleven are not a ranked list. Each is world-class in its own way.
1. Jeffreys Bay — Eastern Cape, South Africa
J-Bay is the right-hand point break. It is the benchmark against which every other right is measured. Located on the Eastern Cape coast of South Africa, it wraps around a rocky point in the small town of Jeffrey's Bay and, on a proper south or southwest groundswell, produces walls that link from Boneyards through Supertubes, the Point, and Impossibles — up to 800 metres of flawless, fast right-hand surf.
Supertubes is the centrepiece: a hollow, powerful section that stands up on the point and throws a thick, almond-shaped barrel that is both fast enough to demand perfect positioning and consistent enough to allow sustained tube rides. The WSL has held a Championship Tour event here for decades. The tube shot from J-Bay — regular-footer locked in, arms at sides, the barrel perfectly round — is one of surfing's defining images.
Best season: June through August on south and southwest groundswells generated by Southern Ocean storm systems. Offshore winds blow from the northwest in winter. Water temperature: 14–17°C (57–63°F) — a 4/3 wetsuit is standard.
2. Kirra — Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
When Kirra is on, there is an argument that it is the best wave in the world. The southern end of the Gold Coast Superbank, Kirra is a sand-bottom right-hand point break that on its best days produces the most perfectly shaped, hollow, grinding barrel a beach break environment can deliver. The wave stands up on the sandbar, throws a thick lip, and the barrel section runs — and runs.
The caveat: Kirra is inconsistent. Sand movement along the coast — influenced by sand bypassing operations, dredging, and natural drift — determines whether the point has the geometry it needs. When conditions align and a solid cyclone swell pushes in from the northeast, the result is extraordinary. When the sand is wrong, it's a mediocre beach break.
Best season: December through April on northeast and east swells generated by tropical cyclones tracking through the Coral Sea. The Gold Coast's beach breaks also receive year-round southeast groundswells, but the classic Kirra barrel comes most reliably on cyclone-generated NE energy.
3. Backdoor — North Shore, Oahu, Hawaii
Pipeline (Banzai Pipeline) is one of the most famous waves in the world — but Pipeline is a left. Backdoor is the right-hand barrel that breaks off the same peak, in the opposite direction, over the same shallow reef ledge. It is the more challenging, less consistent of the two directions, and the surfers who ride it are among the most committed on the North Shore.
A Backdoor tube is a different proposition to a Pipeline tube: the angle is tighter, the exit narrower, and the reef lurks at a more unforgiving depth. There are fewer makeable barrels at Backdoor per swell, which is why the surfers who pull into and exit them with regularity have a special status. The WSL Pipeline event counts Backdoor in its scoring zone; the combination of the two breaks makes it one of the most watched events in professional surfing.
Best season: November through February on northwest and north swells generated by North Pacific storm systems. The North Shore swell season is compressed but intense — long flat spells punctuated by significant swells. Water temperature: 24–26°C (75–79°F) — no wetsuit required.
4. HT's (Hollow Trees / Lance's Right) — Mentawai Islands, Indonesia
In the Mentawai Islands off the west coast of Sumatra, there is a right-hand reef break called Hollow Trees — HT's — that many professional surfers consider the single most perfect wave on the planet. The wave breaks over a coral reef in water that is deep enough to allow entry but shallow enough to produce a genuine barrel, and the combination of swell period, reef shape, and angle produces a barrel section that is both longer and more predictable than almost anywhere else on earth.
The key quality of HT's is repeatability. Set after set, the wave stands up at the same place, throws in the same way, and produces the same hollow, cylindrical barrel — allowing surfers to dial in their positioning to a degree that is unusual even by world-class standards. It is also deep enough into the Mentawai Islands to require a live-aboard boat trip, which keeps the lineup manageable relative to what a wave of this quality would attract if it were accessible by road.
Best season: April through October on Indian Ocean south and southwest swells. Peak: May through August.
5. Lagundri Bay (Nias) — North Sumatra, Indonesia
Nias was one of the first Indonesian waves to reach the surfing world's consciousness — photos of perfect, empty rights in the late 1970s helped define what surf exploration looked like. Lagundri Bay on Nias's south coast holds a right-hand point break of exceptional quality: a consistent, powerful wave that breaks over coral and delivers a workable barrel section followed by a fast, open wall.
A major earthquake in 2005 raised the island by approximately one metre, changing the reef geometry and adding power and hollowness to the take-off section. Most long-term visitors consider the current wave better than the pre-earthquake version. The location is less visited than Bali or the Mentawais and offers a more genuine off-the-grid experience — basic accommodation, a fishing village, and some of the most consistent right-handers in the Indonesian archipelago.
Best season: June through October on Indian Ocean south swells. Water temperature: 27–29°C (81–84°F) — boardshorts.
6. Snapper Rocks / The Superbank — Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
The Gold Coast Superbank is a sand-bottom right-hand point that, when conditions align, connects from Snapper Rocks through Greenmount and Rainbow Bay all the way south to Kirra — nearly two kilometres of continuous right-hander over a perfectly shaped sandbar. No wave on earth runs this long on a sand bottom.
Snapper Rocks is the northern end and the most consistent section. The WSL has held events here, and the morning queues of surfers stretching down the point on a solid swell are a spectacle unto themselves. The quality of the break depends entirely on the state of the sand, which shifts constantly and is periodically managed by bypassing operations. When the sand is right and a swell pushes through, a single wave at Snapper can run for three to five minutes.
Best season: Year-round, with the longest and most connected rides occurring on northeast cyclone swells in summer (December–April) and clean southeast groundswells in the shoulder months.
7. Rincon — Ventura/Santa Barbara, California
Rincon is the right-hand point break of the California coast — the Queen of the Coast, as local surfers call it. A rocky cobblestone point at the Santa Barbara/Ventura county line, it wraps northwest swells into the cove and produces long, fast right-hand walls that can run for hundreds of metres on a good day. The three sections — Indicator, the Cove, and River Mouth — can link on a well-aimed swell to produce one of the longest rides available in California.
Rincon's quality lies in its combination of length, shape, and the long-period northwest groundswells that the California coast receives in winter. The wave is not particularly hollow — it rewards arc and flow rather than barrel surfing — and it attracts surfers at every level, from longboarders walking the nose on the inside sections to shortboarders carving the fast middle wall. The crowd on a good winter day is legendary.
Best season: October through March on northwest groundswells. The wave is shadowed by the Channel Islands from south swells and is effectively flat from spring through early autumn.
8. Keramas — East Bali, Indonesia
While Uluwatu and Padang Padang on Bali's Bukit Peninsula draw the most attention, Keramas on the island's eastern coast is arguably Bali's best right-hander — a fast, hollow reef break that fires on south swells and holds size well. The wave breaks over a volcanic reef and produces a powerful take-off, a running barrel section, and an open face that rewards both tube-hunters and carving surfers.
Keramas is less crowded than the famous Bukit breaks and, unlike the Bukit, faces east — meaning it picks up a slightly different swell angle and benefits from afternoon offshore winds rather than morning glass. The WSL has held events here under floodlights, which speaks to its quality and consistency. Accommodation in the Keramas/Gianyar area is quieter and less developed than the Canggu and Seminyak tourist corridor.
Best season: May through October on Indian Ocean south swells. Best in the morning on south/southwest swell with a light offshore.
9. Cloud 9 — Siargao, Philippines
Siargao is a teardrop-shaped island in the southern Philippines, and Cloud 9 is the wave that put it on the surfing world's map. A right-hand reef break that breaks over a sharp, shallow coral reef, Cloud 9 produces a hollow, barreling take-off and a fast running section that can connect all the way to the channel. A wooden boardwalk leads from the beach to a viewing platform directly above the break — one of the more unusual spectator setups in world surfing.
The Philippines sits in the typhoon belt, and the swells that fire Cloud 9 are generated by tropical systems tracking through the Pacific. The wave is best when a typhoon is close enough to generate long-period groundswell but far enough away that local winds remain favourable. The surrounding island culture is warm, rice and fresh seafood are cheap, and the surfing infrastructure in General Luna (the main surf town on Siargao) has developed considerably in recent years.
Best season: September through November when typhoon-generated swells are most consistent. The break can also fire on any significant north or northwest swell from roughly August through January.
10. Coxos — Ericeira, Portugal
Portugal's Atlantic coast is a world-class surf destination, and Coxos is its finest right-hander. Located near the village of Ribamar, about 40 kilometres north of Lisbon in the Ericeira surf reserve, it is a right-hand reef break that breaks over a rock and sand bottom and, on a well-shaped northwest swell, produces powerful, hollow waves with genuine barrel sections and open walls.
Coxos is the marquee break in a remarkable concentration of surf spots in the Ericeira area — Ribeira d'Ilhas (which hosts WSL events), Pedra Branca, Reef, and several others are all within a short drive. The location just north of Lisbon makes it one of the most accessible world-class waves in Europe: a major international airport, developed infrastructure, excellent food, and a rich surf culture that dates back to the 1960s.
Best season: October through March on northwest Atlantic groundswells generated by North Atlantic low-pressure systems. Offshore winds blow from the east in winter.
11. Scorpion Bay (San Juanico) — Baja California Sur, Mexico
Scorpion Bay is the right-hand point break that Baja surf travellers make the long, dusty drive for. Located inside a southwest-facing bay on Baja's central Pacific coast, the bay receives south and southwest swells directly, and when a long-period swell rolls through, the points step down the bay in sequence — up to seven distinct peaks — producing right-hand rides that can last three to four minutes without backing off.
The wave is mellow and long rather than heavy and hollow, which makes it one of the great longboard and mid-length destinations on the Pacific coast. On a bigger south swell the inside sections can produce a workable barrel, but the defining quality of Scorpion Bay is length and repetition — the ability to walk the nose, hang five, and ride until your legs give out. The village of San Juanico is small and unhurried, and camping on the beach beneath the stars is the traditional way to experience it.
Best season: May through October on south and southwest swells. The bay needs long-period energy — 14 seconds or more — to link the points in sequence.
Check live conditions at groundswell.surf before heading out.