I met the guys in St. Pete and we made the drive to Miami Airport. After a three hour plane ride we arrived in Panama City. We made no reservations anywhere and decided to just cruise the country and look for waves. We had made arrangements for a ride to our first destination and after an hour wait at the airport Ricardo finally showed up. We checked out some shops in Panama City and then paid $75 for a 2½ hour ride to a spot called Isla Grande.

Isla Grande is an island about a mile off the Caribbean coast of Panama. We had seen some sick pics of a break there that we had to check out. That's about as much as we knew about the place. The ride there was gorgeous. We twisted our way through rain forests and mountains till we eventually hit the coast. As we drove past break after break we knew we were gonna have some waves once we got there. We arrived at a makeshift boat dock just at sunset, loaded our gear on a little wooden boat and made off across the harbor. Our boat driver was steering us right towards the channel where we could see huge waves breaking along the reef. As we got closer and closer it seemed as if we were gonna take on these waves and we were all pretty terrified. We started asking the driver where he was going but he just gave us a silent grin and then guns the boat full speed through a narrow opening in the reef and suddenly we're in tranquil water. Still to this day we all agree that was one of the scariest moments of our lives. We get a room and can hear blasts of waves all night.

Early morning wave check. The waves are nothing like we anticipated. The wind is blowing straight onshore about 20mph and there's 4-8 foot choppy faces breaking both ways on the reef. Not only that but the waves are very thick and powerful and hitting so fast. There is also a lot of current. We find out it's the only break on the island and it's usually like this because of the trade winds this time of year. We decide to give it a go, but we have to walk over about 50 yards of dry reef before we're in. Did I mention the waves are super heavy? They come out of 200 feet of water and just dump over a sharp reef. We stay out a couple hours, get some rides and get back to shore alive. After some sea urchin plucking, we decide we need to get off the island and head to the Pacific side. We make some calls but can't find a ride, so we stay another day and finally get a hold of someone to pick us up. Even though the waves were disappointing, Isla Grande is such a beautiful island. It had a mountain in the center covered with rain forest and when you climbed to the top you could see miles and miles of the rugged coastline. The place we stayed was also incredible. It tucked into the mountain and overlooked the break. The people on the other hand were not very friendly. The vibe of the place was kind of creepy, and we were over it.

As we waited at a crowded bus stop our ride arrived; his name was Mikey. He was sportin an old Toyota Land Cruiser 4x4, rigged with surf racks and a/c. We loaded our gear and took off for the Pacific Coast. Mikey surfed and offered to drive us around and be our guide for $275 bones a piece. We took him up on his offer since it was really hard to get around and we still had 8 days of our trip left. We made a stop at the Canal and Panama City to pick up Mikey's board. We decided to head towards the town of Chitre and check out a spot called Venado Beach. Two hours into our six hour drive a belt broke on Mikey's truck so we had to find a place for the night. Mikey managed to get the belt fixed the next morning. We arrived in Venado that afternoon and it was a real cool break. It's a beach break nestled in a huge cove with mountains going about a half mile out on each side. That 20mph tradewind kept the place groomed to perfection and the lines were 2-3 hundred yards, breaking both ways. At low tide it would break a little too fast and there were a lot of closeouts, but you could still snag a shoulder and get a ride. At high tide it would slow down and just wall up all the way to the beach.

Do you wonder why they call it the Pacific? Less than 24 hours after the above Isla Grande mess- we had spent the night in the cocaine towers of Panama City broke a belt near Playa Rio Mar and slept the four of us in one bug infested full size bed on the way to the Peninsula de Azuero. Here Tony washes away the sins on a clean little righthander at Playa Venado on the Pacific Coast.

At Venado you can either camp or you can pay $10 a night to stay in these little one room shacks on the beach. My advice would be to sleep in the sand rather than sleep in the shacks. The shacks were infested with bugs and falling apart. There were about ten of these shacks lined up and we were the only ones there. There's a little restaurant/bar right there too and they'll cook ya up some grub whenever you want. We spent the first couple of days surfing Venado and the waves were waist to chest high, but really only good on high tide because the tide drops 16 feet on low.

Cambu...what? On our 3rd day Mikey took us along an isolated stretch of the coast to check out some different breaks. We drove through some really rugged terrain, muddy pastures, rivers, and up and down some steep hills. Whenever we finally came to a clearing we'd stop and check the waves. It was cool because nobody's around for miles and you could actually be the first to surf some break. It felt like the edge of the earth. Just empty. Most all the breaks were big rock formations under the water. We ended up surfing a break called Dinosaurios. Dinosaurios has a huge rock just under the surface that caused the wave to A-frame. When you fell you had to be careful to try to find a hole in the shallow rock. We surfed till high tide and then headed back to Venado for the evening session. In the evenings we'd just hang out on the shack porch, listen to reggae, sip on some Bacardi and watch the endless night stars.

Each day we would take the one hour ride south to Cambutal during low tide. We eventually found our favorite break there called Corte Circuito(short circuit). Corte Circuito is a super long right cobblestone point break in the middle of nowhere next to a rivermouth. We felt like we had discovered J-Bay or something when we first saw it. It would only be good for an hour or two during low tide and then became shore break as the incoming rose. Still not a soul on the beach and all these waves just for us. The last day in Venado the swell really picked up. Head high and perfect(see the travel section picture). A few local surfers and body boarders showed up. We had a great last surf and could really appreciate the swell potential Panama has to offer. But by the last day we were more than ready to get back home to our families. Despite how fun the surf was, this trip was a very grueling one. Definitely a surf adventure in a third world country. At times we all felt we were gonna go
Matty Lui or something. Panama and Costa are close in proximity but worlds apart when it comes to a surf trip. We did make some good memories and had quite an adventure, and for some crazy reason I think we would all go back someday. Knowing what I know now would sure make it a lot easier.

Panama Tips