Surfing at Bocas del Toro

The Bocas del Toro Islands are particularly good for surfing. Swell is produced by strong trade winds and cold fronts coming in from the Caribbean Sea. In addition there is deep ocean trench just offshore and favourable local winds. The combination produces potent short period swells. The biggest and most consistent swells come to Bocas from December through March. You can also expect to find great waves during June and July.

The surf produced is a combination of coral reef breaks and powerful beachbreaks and is recommended for experienced shortboarders. Bocas del Toro's waves generally favour shortboarding and bodyboarding, and the surf tours are geared for the experienced surfer seeking performance waves and tubes. The planes to and from Bocas do not accept longboards or funboards, max. length accepted is 7 feet (plus or minus a few inches), and it is not practical to ship longboards by land (12 hours from Panama city).

Bocas can offer different breaks, anything from long, barelling, reef point breaks, to powerful beach breaks, reefs with steep drops and spitting tubes. The islands of Bocas catch just about every swell direction and surf is rarely under 4 feet and gets to up to 25 foot faces with a good swell. The main surfing spots are

Bluff Beach, Isla Colon. This is a long beach with very strong waves not always good for surfers. The long underwater drop off makes long and continuous waves that break almost in the beach. A sand bottom beach break, breaking very close to the beach. This place is normally surfed by bodyboarders. The wave is powerful and wave snaps lots of boards. It normally gets about 2 feet bigger than Dumps and Punch.
The Dump, Isla Colon. The Dump is the favorite of local surfers, but a little dangerous with many coral reefs close to the waves.A reef bottom left hander. Steep drops and super powerful with a tube. The wave is short and ends on top of a rock on the inside. There is an inside break that is a longer ride, but not as tubular and it only breaks when the Dump is about 7 to 8 feet. The surf can get as big as 12 feet, but that’s when the inside Dumpers starts really firing.
Paunch, Isla Colon. A reef bottom right and left break. There are 2 or 3 different peaks you can take off from. This wave is more mellow than Dumpers and not quite as powerful. Most of the less experienced surfers go out here because it is a fun wave and less dangerous than most of the other breaks at Bocas. It can get as big as 12 feet, and the wave holds size well. The bigger the the wave, the more perfect the tube section.
First and Second Beach, Bastimentos. This is a long beach break. The beach has a reef point break, and then beach break in the middle. The beach break is very powerful and when there is a large swell it tends to close out. Generally, it gets much bigger at First Beach than any of the other breaks (except Silver Backs), so when the other breaks are only a 1-3 feet, you can get fun 4-6 foot beach break surf here.
Carenero Cay, northern tip. A little dangerous with many coral reefs close to the waves. A left hand reef bottom point break that breaks on the outside of a round shaped reef and wraps along the edge of the reef for a ride about 150 yards long. The wave is powerful and pitches some very long tube sections. When conditions are perfect you can get 5 to 6 second tube rides
SilverBacks - A right hand big wave reef bottom point break, breaking out in the deep ocean, but close to an outer island, about a 30 minute boat ride from Bocas. The wave breaks on most swells. When th other spots are 6 to 7 feet, this place can be twice that, and gets sometimes to 25 foot faces.

Bocas del Toro Information