Central America & The Caribbean

Wind, swell & tides for Central America & The Caribbean

The Pacific Ocean

Central America & the Caribbean form the link between North and South America, showing characteristics of both continents plus a character all of its own. The imbalance of swell distribution is apparent with the Pacific easily upstaging the Atlantic for size and consistency, but the Caribbean islands do attract seasonal North Atlantic energy, plus the Gulf Of Mexico is swept by windswell and occasional hurricanes.

Most Pacific shores from Mexico to Panama rely on the dependable, year-round, long distance, SW swells from the South Pacific. Low pressure systems just to the east of New Zealand seem to produce the most epic waves, despite a journey of up to 12,000km. This is because the bulk of the swell is pushed off the weather system’s leading edge as it travels east and the clockwise rotation aids a SW direction of origin. The southern regions of the Central American Pacific coast receive more of these southern swells but miss out on a lot of the North Pacific swells that Mexico enjoys.

These NW swells rarely produce large waves, which will best strike the few WNW-exposed regions like Baja, Nayarit, Jalisco or Guanacaste. The tropical storms that form off the Mexican mainland from May to November always take a northern trajectory, so S swell is produced for the northern regions of Mexico, Baja and California. Rarely will these hurricanes (locally known as chubascos or cordonazos) produce much for El Salvador, Costa Rica or Panama, and often just close-out on the Mexican beaches.

The Caribbean Sea

Whenever Central America’s Pacific shores go flat, which isn’t very often, a short journey to the other side, opens up the possibilities offered by the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. The Gulf of Mexico produces windswell coming out of the north, but is less reliable than the sizeable and powerful waves that lash the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and Panama from December to April and July/August. Cold fronts and depressions north of Colombia are responsible for the unexpected winter waves, while rogue hurricanes can throw up swells through the June to November season.

The wind set-up for Pacific Central America is nearly ideal with plenty of glassy or light wind conditions. In summer, after the early offshores, a light SW sea breeze will spring up, while winter is blessed by near-constant northerly offshores, which can be a problem for the Caribbean coasts during the prime swell months. Caribbean islands facing the North Atlantic accept swells travelling south from the high latitude band of low pressures that spin from Nova Scotia to Europe. These swells often bypass the North American East Coast, before reaching the exposed northern coasts of the Greater Antilles. Puerto Rico benefits from the maximum impact, with a swell-focusing 8km deep trench just offshore, helping to create reliable and occasionally huge waves from October to March. West of the Dominican Republic, the western Greater Antilles (Haiti, Cuba) are sheltered by the Bahamas, a string of islands and coral cays that hide some good waves. The Lesser Antilles also attracts a decent share of North Atlantic N/NE swells, but mainly rely on trade wind swell, hence the name tag of The Windward Islands.

This area is also where the word hurricane originated from and the West Indies are always in the firing line of hurricane alley, so surfers pray for the swell without the devastation. If one of these storms crosses over the islands and into the Caribbean Sea, then the west coasts may come to life with perfect waves at breaks that are usually dead flat. Overall, the Caribbean is windy, dominated by an E/NE sea breeze which can produce cross/offshore conditions on NW-facing spots or consistent wind mush on windward coasts. This wind is almost always blowing, so it stands to reason that there are always going to be rideable waves on islands like Barbados.

The whole region is mainly fed by the North Equatorial Current on both the Pacific and Atlantic sides, meaning just one thing – boardshorts - unless you are in the central or northern Baja upwelling zone! Up to 4m changes in height of the semi-diurnal tides affect Panama and Costa Rica, while most of the region experiences less than 1.6m tidal range. Most of the Gulf of Mexico gets diurnal tides and the Caribbean Sea experiences semi-diurnal with different ranges.