Surfing in Panama in September

September is the peak of the wet season. The southern swell is still arriving and starting to space out, and what changes is everything on land.

The road to Santa Catalina is the specific thing to plan around. It takes longer than the map suggests in the dry season and it takes longer again after a week of September rain, and the last stretch is where a hire car becomes a question rather than a formality. Playa Venao and Cambutal are easier to reach and stay easier in the wet.

The compensation is that nobody is here. September falls between the northern summer and the dry-season season, so a coast that is never crowded becomes genuinely empty, and the accommodation on both sides of the peninsula is at its cheapest.

Learning in September

For learning : Good

Workable but wet. Venao rather than anywhere that needs a drive, and expect to lose afternoons.

Where a beginner goes in September

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

For an experienced surfer

Surf : Good

Late-season swell with the whole coast to yourself, if you are relaxed about getting to it.

How September 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.