Surfing in Panama in April

April ends the offshore season and opens the swell season, and the overlap is what makes it worth knowing about. The trade winds weaken through the month, the rains have not properly started, and the first pulses generated deep in the Southern Ocean reach a coast that faces almost due south.

That combination does not last. From May the rain arrives and the wind becomes ordinary, so the groomed mornings that produce Panama's famous figures are behind you and the size that the country page calls the season is ahead. April is the fortnight where both are half true.

The water on the Venao side is climbing back off its March floor, at 27°C, and Santa Catalina is holding at 29.5°C, still the warmer of the two gulfs by a margin that closes fast from here.

Learning in April

For learning : Very good

A good month at Venao, warming up and still clean more often than not. The last of the easy weeks before the swell season.

Where a beginner goes in April

These spots are reachable all year. What the month changes is the size of the waves, not the access.

For an experienced surfer

Surf : Very good

The one month with the dry season's wind and the wet season's swell in it. Worth building a trip around if the dates are flexible.

How April compares

All twelve months, side by side

Where these figures come from

Air, rain and sunshine: WMO / NOAA 1991-2020 normals for Agadir Al Massira, a station some twenty kilometres inland and so a little warmer than the coast in summer. Swell, period and share of workable wind: Swell Archive and surf-forecast. Water temperature: seatemperature.org and weather-and-climate. Crowds and prices are an editorial judgement, not a measurement.