Session of the Season // Northern Hemisphere Winter 2025 // Davide Lopez in Panama
You’ll find tropical paradise Bocas Del Toro nestled within the collection of islands off the Caribbean coast of Panama, tempting surfers and sun-seekers from all over the world. C-Skins rider Davide Lopez owns and runs The Pier Surf School in the Mediterranean Sea in his home town of Forte dei Marmi in Italy. But come the arrival of winter, DeDe and his friends pack up their boards and camera equipment in search of perfect waves and warmth. Frequent visitors of the Central American archipelago, you’ll find Dede and co enjoying the spoils of Boca Del Toro season after season.
In the depths of winter, seeing tropical perfection from the northern hemisphere can have us itching for our next trip, sparking inspiration and thirst for adventure. DeDe’s story was an easy pick for this quarter's Session of the Season.
Date: February 2025
Swell height and period: 2.2m at @ 10 seconds
Wind direction: Offshore
Location: Bluff Beach, Bocas Del Toro, Panama
Surfboard: 6.0 Big Uncle Twin Bros
Wetsuit: UV Skins Basics Long Sleeve Vest
Tell us about this run of swell…
I love this wave - it’s definitely one of my favourites in the world. This place has no rules; even when the forecast looks perfect, it can be bad all day long and then suddenly turn amazing for just 10 minutes. All you need here is faith and patience. The beach stretches for 10km with more peaks than people. The wave is wider than it is tall and the take-off is the craziest I’ve ever seen, smashing anyone who dares to drop in near the shore.
This is my fourth season coming here - it’s an obsession, which is also the title of my last movie filmed in this spot. It’s an impossible wave, intimidating anyone who dares to stare at it. Sometimes you even find yourself alone in the water.
This session:
When we arrived it looked terrible. This wave doesn’t usually handle a heavy forecast very well, anything above 1.8 meters, like it was that day. My friends and I have been coming here year and year in search of a shared dream, this day, and on this day we found ourselves frustrated once again. There was too much water moving in every direction and the relentless current made it un-surfable. The wind howled, the rain poured and my faith began to fade. I found myself taking deep breaths, long and steady... and then, suddenly, the rain stopped and there it was - the golden afternoon of the season, materialising out of nowhere, and with it my wave appeared.
This wave:
The wave didn’t just make me wait that long day. It didn’t appear before breaking two boards. It didn’t show when the forecasts looked promising, nor when they were disastrous. It didn’t come when I left my girlfriend at home, hopeful for sick sessions. I came close to finding it a few times, but just as quickly as it appeared, it vanished. It kept me waiting all month, until the day before my videographer, Leo Moriconi, was due to leave - along with my last hopes!
The day it finally manifested everyone just stood there, stunned by the magnificence. Unlike others, the take-off wasn’t the craziest of my life, but as soon as I hit the bottom the barrel opened up and it was wider than a highway. I felt like a kid in a 360° aquarium, surrounded by an endless blue, like a scene straight out of a movie. A few seconds of pure bliss inside the barrel and then it spit me out in a long, radiant blast.
The weight on my mind and heart lifted. My filmer rose with excitement - he had finally captured THE ONE on our very last day! Leo is young but seriously talented. Our aim with the film was to make more than a surf movie, and focus on personal growth, too. I’m really looking forward to releasing the new film where you can discover the relentless search that defined our month-long trip here in Bocas.
Photos by @leonardo_moriconi and @yotreybrown
