Playa Venao
Twenty-six clean days out of thirty in December, on a sandbar anybody can surf.
Welcome to Santa Catalina
Surfing in Santa Catalina
Santa Catalina is a fishing village at the end of a road that takes longer than the map suggests, and it holds the most reliable point in Panama.
- 2spots
The wave is a point break taking south-south-west swell with a northerly offshore, and it is very consistent, which on this coast means it is nearly always doing something. January is the clean month: twenty-three days out of thirty come clean, five are blown out, two are too small. Those are figures only Nicaragua beats, and the reason is the same one, dry-season wind blowing offshore across the isthmus.
Punta Brava is the left reef on the same headland, best around low tide, and it shares the point's exact numbers because the two sit a hundred metres apart on the forecast grid. That tells you about the coast, not about which of the two is better on the morning you arrive.
Both name urchins and rocks, which is the thing to plan for: reef boots are not optional here, and neither wave is where somebody learns.
The village is small and getting less so. There is dive traffic to Coiba, a handful of places to eat, and not much else. Water sits around 29°C all year, so the whole packing question is a rash vest and a pair of boots.
Welcome home.
Why Santa Catalina?
A long road, and a wave that is nearly always on
The trade here is access against reliability. Getting to Santa Catalina costs the best part of a day, and in exchange you get a point that works three weeks out of four in the dry season, water at twenty-nine degrees, and a village too far out to fill up. If a week of surfing is the point of the trip, that is a good bargain. If somebody in the group does not surf, it is a long way to nothing.
Where is Santa Catalina?
Getting there
Santa Catalina is around seven hours from Panama City, the last stretch on a road that has improved but is still the reason people arrive tired. Most camps run the transfer. Once you are there, the point and Punta Brava are the same walk.
Best surf spots in Santa Catalina
See all spotsSurf camps in Santa Catalina
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Other surf zones nearby
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