Isla Uvita

Surf Guide

A half-hour boat ride from Limon, Isla Uvita is an undeveloped, uninhabited, reef-flanked island where Christopher Columbus landed in 1502 on his fourth New World voyage. In peak form the wave is an ultra-gnarly, jacking, bowling, warping lefthand reefbreak with a shallow outside ledge and two dangerously slabby sections thereafter, becoming a tuberiding haven for advanced surfers and bodyboarders experienced in thick-lipped slabs. Uvita picks up any trace of short-interval windswell generated by all the powerful Atlantic storms that crank up in the winter (and to a lesser-degree, summer), and morning windows are optimal; although with all the frequent thunderstorms that coincide with the surf seasons, it’s never onshore for too long on the Caribbean side. Occasionally world-class, sometimes sketchy, but perpetually rideable, Uvita generally has three takeoff sections and can hold up to double-overhead surf and beyond; at which point it becomes one of the freakishly challenging waves in the whole country.