Ditch Plains taught a generation of New Yorkers to surf, which is exactly why it is crowded. Here's where to paddle out, when the swell actually arrives, and what to wear so you last more than twenty minutes.
Read the Map
The surf beaches here look out at open Atlantic across the bottom half of the compass. That orientation means the good swell arrives from the south and southeast — which in practice means distant tropical systems tracking up the coast in late summer and autumn, well offshore, sending clean groundswell ahead of them.
It also means the prevailing southwest wind of a summer afternoon blows straight onshore and turns everything to mush, while a northwest wind comes over your shoulder off the land and holds the face up. This is why Montauk surfers get up early: the wind usually hasn't found its direction yet at dawn, and the water is glass.
Winter delivers bigger, heavier surf from northeast storms. It also delivers water in the high thirties. Both facts are load-bearing.
Where to Paddle Out
A cobblestone point break east of the village, throwing long, slow, good-natured rights that a longboard was invented for. It is the reason Montauk is a surf town. It is also, on any decent summer swell, one of the more crowded lineups on the East Coast.
Kirk Park and the sand either side of it. Shifting sandbars, nothing special on a good day, and precisely where you should learn — soft bottom, fewer people, and you can walk there from the train station with a foam board under your arm.
Miles of beach break west of town, uncrowded because nobody agrees where the sandbars are this year. On the right day you'll find a peak to yourself while Ditch has forty people on it. On the wrong day you'll drive home.
Under the lighthouse, where the Sound meets the ocean. Rock bottom, converging currents, and a paddle-out that punishes hesitation. It works when almost nothing else does, which is the only reason anyone puts up with it.
The Wetsuit Clock
The Atlantic here warms slowly and cools slowly. That lag is why September water is warmer than June water, and why so many visitors show up in June underdressed and leave after half an hour.
Water temperature at Montauk Point
Reading the buoy…
| Month | Suit | Extremities | What it's like |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 5/4 hooded | Boots & gloves | Cold enough that your session ends when your hands do. |
| February | 5/4 hooded | Boots & gloves | The coldest water of the year. Big swell, empty lineups. |
| March | 5/4 hooded | Boots & gloves | Air warms, water doesn't. Do not be fooled by the sun. |
| April | 4/3, hood optional | Boots, gloves early | The slowest month. Still properly cold. |
| May | 4/3 | Boots | Air feels like summer. The water has not received the memo. |
| June | 3/2 | Nothing, usually | Comfortable at last, and often small. |
| July | Springsuit or 3/2 | — | Warmest air, smallest surf. Good month to learn. |
| August | Springsuit or trunks | — | Water peaks. Tropical swell starts showing up. |
| September | Springsuit, 3/2 late | — | The best month. Warm water, real swell, no crowd. |
| October | 3/2 or 4/3 | Boots late month | Cooling fast, and surfing better every week. |
| November | 4/3 | Boots & gloves | Serious swell arrives. So does the hood question. |
| December | 5/4 hooded | Boots & gloves | Winter proper. Wonderful, if you're honest about it. |
A guide, not a prescription. Tolerance varies enormously, sessions get longer in warm water, and a bad suit at 55°F is colder than a good suit at 48°F. When in doubt, bring the warmer one.
Montauk is not a hostile place to surf, but Ditch Plains in August is a very full room, and the people who surf it in February have a longer claim on it than you do. Most friction there is not localism. It is people who don't know the rules getting in the way of people who do.
Not the wave. The bottom, the cold, and the current.
The cobblestone at Ditch is rock, and it is shallow on a low tide. Boots are not just for warmth. The Point is worse — boulder bottom and converging currents where Block Island Sound pours into the Atlantic, which is why our beach guide tells you not to swim there at all.
Cold water incapacitates faster than people expect. In a hooded 5/4 in February you have a good session. In a 3/2, you have about fifteen minutes before your hands stop working, and cold hands cannot un-velcro a leash.
The clean autumn groundswell everyone waits for arrives with rip currents strong enough to move an experienced surfer half a mile down the beach. Most of these beaches are unguarded, and after Labor Day all of them are. Do not paddle out alone on a big day.
In July and August, boards and lessons are easy to find in the village and near Ditch Plains, and a lesson is genuinely the fastest route to standing up on the forgiving waves here. Shops are part of the town's furniture, not an afterthought.
Outside the summer, availability thins quickly and by winter it has essentially gone. If you're visiting in the shoulder months, sort out a board before you arrive — and if you want a hooded suit in November, do not assume you can rent one.
Summer slots go quickly. September is easier and the waves are better.
Before You Paddle Out
Late summer through autumn — roughly August into November. Distant tropical systems send groundswell up the coast while the water is still warm and mornings are often light-wind. Winter is bigger and colder. Midsummer is frequently small, which is why it's a good time to learn.
See the table above, and check the live water temperature at the top of it. Broadly: hooded 5/4 with boots and gloves December through March, 4/3 with boots in April, May and November, 3/2 in June and October, springsuit or trunks from late July through September.
The wave is. The crowd isn't. Learn on the sand-bottom beach breaks near the village or at Hither Hills, or take a lesson, and come to Ditch once you can hold a line and stay out of people's way.
The lot is small, requires a seasonal permit, and is full well before nine in summer. Ride a bike from the village — it is the single best piece of surf logistics advice in Montauk. See getting around.
People do it constantly and in summer you will not be the only board on the platform. Keep it out of the aisle and check the LIRR's current policy before you rely on it.
Several, and every surfer here has a preferred one. The live readings on this page come from NOAA — buoy 44017 for water temperature, station 8510560 for tide. For swell height and period, use a dedicated forecast service, then look at the water anyway.
One email a month: when the water turns over, when the swell arrives, and where the crowds aren't.
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