Surfing in Mozambique

Mozambique is a tropical coast few surfers have seen, and it stays quiet outside the South African holidays.

The south of the country, around Tofo and Ponta do Ouro, holds most of it: long sand points that run when southern swell arrives, and warm water all year. This is not a big-wave destination, it is a destination for long, steady waves in a setting that belongs to nowhere else.

The season follows the southern winter, May to September, when swells generated far to the south push up the Mozambique Channel. The rest of the year stays surfable but noticeably smaller.

You have to accept slow logistics. The roads are long, some breaks need a four-wheel drive, and the surf infrastructure is thin next to neighbouring South Africa. That is the price of the empty line-ups.

Who it suits: the self-sufficient intermediate and the traveller who wants something off the marked route. Mozambique pairs well with South Africa, of which it is the natural continuation for anyone driving up the coast.