Tides of Morrillo Beach - Best time to Surf, Swim, and Fish
- Cari Mackey
- Mar 1
- 3 min read
Our lives revolve around the tides here which, is kind of nice to think about as opposed to rush hour, school schedules, office hours, or even sunset and sunrise - which, incidentally, don't change throughout the year here. Upon our guests arrival, we walk through a short orientation about living daily life in our eco resort that includes an explanation about the tides.
Essentially, we explain at high tide the whole beach fills up with water and at low tide, the water disappears. Simple enough, right? Well, when it comes to truly understanding tides, simple it is not. So, over the years I have been diving deeper into what causes the tide shifts here and how I can more easily explain it to our guests.
The most important thing about understanding the tides here is that's when we surf, kayak, paddle-board, swim, boogie board, and fish. Over the years, many of our guests have commented on how dramatic the tidal shifts are here so I realized my lack of tidal knowledge really need to, well, shift!
So, thanks to our friends, surfers, and brilliant scientists at Waterlust for trying their very best to dumb it down for someone like me. However, despite their valliant efforts, I still don't really grasp the physics of it all. So, I will keep it on the surface for you and if you want to dive deeper you can.
As you were scrolling up and down and up and down comparing those two photos above of the difference between high & low tide, what you were seeing there is Syzygy in action; when the Earth, Moon, and Sun are in alignment causing dramatic tidal shifts. On our beach, depending on the alignment of those three, we can see up to a difference of about 13 ft between high and low tide.
While that dramatic shift only happens once a month, we still have an average change of about 9 ft every day between high and low tide which, even though that's a pretty average shift, it looks really dramatic on our beach beach because of the bathymetry of our beach a.k.a. the shape of the ocean floor.
Essentially, I think, but don't quote me on this: when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are in alignment, we get Szygy a.k.a. King Tides a.k.a. dramatic tidal shifts and when they are at a 90° angle to eachother we get a Neap tide - a less dramatic change; when the tidal shift can be as low as 5 ft different. After all that, what you really need to know is that we surf about an hour before and after high tide and that time advances every day by about an hour.
Once again though, you don't really need to know all this when visiting us because we are here to make life simple. We have a tide chart in our bar every day so you can enjoy your coffee, col-col beer, and surf waves.
Now that we've covered the tides, when we surf, fish, boogie, and enjoy time on the beach while keeping things simple, the best way to stay with us is with our our all inclusive packages where we take care of ALL the details so you don't have to! Yes, we even help you plan your surf sessions based on the...tides! Because, we have a deep knowledge about that.
Wondering how to plan your trip to experience adventure with us? This is where you start:
With love from Panama,
Cari & Ryan Mackey
Owners and Hosts
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