The World Surf League Returns to Costa Rica | Garabito Surf City PRO 2026
The World Surf League returns to Costa Rica with the Garabito Surf City PRO 2026, a men’s and women’s QS 2000 event running August 13 to 16 at Playa Hermosa, Puntarenas. It is Costa Rica’s first WSL contest in eight years, carries a US $25,000 prize purse, and takes place on a beach designated a World Surfing Reserve.
Costa Rica has not hosted a World Surf League contest since October 2018, when Carlos Muñoz won the last one on home sand in Jacó. A lot has happened since then: Brisa Hennessy climbed to the top of the world rankings, and Playa Hermosa was named a World Surfing Reserve.
On August 13, the wait ends. The World Surf League returns to Costa Rica for four days of world-class competition, and every heat runs on the beach right down the road from our villas.
Plan on attending the WSL in Costa Rica?
Book your stay at Amarena Canvas Beach Hotel for luxury tented villas steps from the sand, your own private pool, and a front-row seat to the whole event. Reserve your villa for August 13 to 16 →
The 2026 WSL Event: Four Days of World-Class Surfing on Playa Hermosa
If competitive surfing is new to you, here is the short version. The World Surf League is the sport’s global professional circuit, and below its elite Championship Tour event sits the Qualifying Series, where surfers from dozens of countries chase ranking points that move them up the ladder.
The Garabito Surf City PRO 2026 is one of those contests, a men’s and women’s QS 2000 running August 13 to 16 on Playa Hermosa, with a US $25,000 prize purse on the line. Professional surfers are flying in from around the world for this event schedule. For surfers chasing the world surf league championship tour, every QS event matters. A strong result here can help surfers build toward a future world title run.
It is Costa Rica’s first WSL event since that 2018 contest in Jacó, and this time the tour is coming to a wilder beach just down the coast from where it left off. The league wants to stay, too: organizers have said Playa Hermosa is the stage to make Garabito a fixture of international competition and world champions.
What Earned Playa Hermosa This Surf Tour Event | A 2026 Championship Tour Event Pathway
Playa Hermosa was dedicated as a World Surfing Reserve on June 12, 2022, the first in Central America and one of only a handful on the planet at the time. The designation, awarded by Save The Waves Coalition, recognizes two things at once: waves worth protecting, and a community organized enough to protect them.
This coastline holds more than 15 distinct breaks, from punchy A-frame beach break peaks to rocky points and rivermouth peelers, and Surfline has called it possibly the most consistently rideable zone in Central America. You do not have to be a professional surfer to appreciate these breaks.
The ecosystem carries the other half of the case. This stretch of coast shelters threatened species, including three endangered species of sea turtle and the scarlet macaw, and a long section of the beach sits inside the Punta Mala Wildlife Refuge, a protected area that supports conservation work and a sea turtle hatchery.
A national study cited by the World Surfing Reserve program found that surf tourism delivers millions of dollars a year in value to this community, which strengthens the case for protecting it long term.
Garabito: Costa Rica’s First Surf City
On the same day the WSL confirmed its return, the World Surf Cities Network named Garabito the first Surf City in Costa Rica and in all of Central America. The title ties the canton into a global network of cities where surfing drives economic and cultural development, and it signals that nobody involved is treating this as a one-off contest weekend.
According to the Costa Rican Tourism Institute, 17 percent of tourists arriving in Costa Rica by air practice surfing, as many as 600,000 surfers have entered the country in a single year, and surf tourism continues to grow worldwide. A recurring WSL stop puts Playa Hermosa in front of that audience every year, not just during Championship Tour schedules.
Costa Rica: A Home Team to Watch
Costa Rica arrives at this event with more elite surfing talent than at any point in its history, and the home crowd will feel it on the sand. Brisa Hennessy, raised near Matapalo, finished fourth on the 2024 Championship Tour, her career best, after being ranked number one in the world earlier that season. She also placed fourth at the Paris Olympics the same year.
Leilani McGonagle, from the famed left point at Pavones, won the 2025 Super Girl Surf Pro in California, the first non-American ever to take the event. Carlos Muñoz, who won that 2018 contest in Jacó, remains among the country’s highest-ranked men on the Qualifying Series.
A home QS 2000 means ranked Ticos can chase points without leaving the country, and the ICT has already published a roster of confirmed local entrants including Tomas King, Anthony Fillingim, and Malakai Martínez. Expect the beach crowd to be loud as they cheer on this world-class surf competition schedule.
Planning Your Trip: A Luxury Beach Stay at Playa Hermosa
Amarena Canvas Beach Hotel sits directly on Playa Hermosa, inside the Místico beach community, and its 16 tented villas are open and waiting for you. Stay with us and the final surf contest is not a day trip you drive to. It is happening on your home beach, with your own private pool waiting between heats.
Breakfast and Madresal Beach Club access come with every stay, and opening-special rates are available during the event window. Sixteen villas, one beach, four days of international competition.
Getting here is the easy part. Playa Hermosa sits about 94 kilometers from Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO), roughly an hour and a half by road, between Jacó and Esterillos. That makes it one of the most accessible waves of this caliber anywhere, and it spares you the itinerary of hotel changes and long drives that exhaust so many first Costa Rica trips.
The Beach After the Banners Come Down
Reading this after August 16? Everything that brought the WSL to Playa Hermosa is still here waiting for you.
- More than 15 surf breaks inside a World Surfing Reserve, in what Surfline has called possibly the most consistently rideable zone in Central America, with surf lessons through the hotel if you are new to the waves.
- A Balinese-style tented villa that opens to the beach and forest, with air conditioning, an en-suite bathroom, an outdoor bathtub, and your own private pool.
- Madresal Beach Club, morning yoga, the Amarena Spa, and Kairos Bar & Restaurant, where breakfast comes with your stay.
- The Punta Mala Wildlife Refuge and the threatened species living in the ecosystem around you, scarlet macaws included.
- One base an hour and a half from the airport, so the whole trip happens without a single hotel change.
What sets a stay here apart is the room itself. Each villa is a Balinese-style canvas structure that opens on every side, so there is no glass between you and the beach. You wake to birdsong and the break out front, step from bed to your own pool, and rinse off under the sky in an outdoor bathtub. It is open-air living with air conditioning, a full en-suite bathroom, and a proper bed waiting when you want walls again.
We call the idea living without walls. We opened in 2026 inside Místico One of a Kind Beach Community, an 865-acre stretch of coast built around conservation rather than dense construction. Luxury tents instead of poured concrete, a light footprint on a beach the world is now protecting.
Ready to Watch the WSL Tour Event in Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica?
For four days in August, the world’s best qualifying surfers compete right outside your villa, and the rest of the year this beach is quieter but no less beautiful. There are only 16 villas here, and we’d love to have you on the sand that brought the World Surf League back to Costa Rica.
Check availability for August 13 to 16 →
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where is the WSL event in Costa Rica in 2026?
The Garabito Surf City PRO 2026 runs August 13 to 16 at Playa Hermosa in Garabito, Puntarenas, on Costa Rica’s Central Pacific coast. It is a men’s and women’s QS 2000 Qualifying Series event with a US $25,000 prize purse, and the first WSL contest held in Costa Rica since October 2018.
Is Playa Hermosa good for surfing?
Yes. Playa Hermosa was dedicated as a World Surfing Reserve in 2022, the first in Central America, and its coastline holds more than 15 breaks ranging from A-frame beach break peaks to rocky points. The main beach break is powerful and best suited to intermediate and advanced surfers, though surf lessons are available for beginners.
Is the beach at Playa Hermosa safe for young children to swim?
Playa Hermosa is a surf beach with real waves and currents, not a calm-water swimming beach. Families staying at Amarena use the private pool that comes with every villa, plus the shared pool on the property, as the safe-swim option for young kids, and treat the surf as a supervised thrill for older kids and adults.
How do I get to Playa Hermosa from San José airport?
Playa Hermosa is about 94 kilometers from Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO), roughly an hour and a half by road. The beach sits between Jacó and Esterillos on the Central Pacific coast, making it one of the closest major surf zones to the country’s main international airport.
What is a World Surfing Reserve?
A World Surfing Reserve is a designation from Save The Waves Coalition that protects outstanding waves and the ecosystems and communities around them. Only about a dozen existed worldwide when Playa Hermosa was dedicated in June 2022, and each reserve is managed by a local stewardship council with a formal conservation plan.
Where can I stay for the 2026 World Surf League in Costa Rica?
Amarena Canvas Beach Hotel Místico sits directly on Playa Hermosa, the beach hosting the surf competition event, inside the Místico beach community. Its 16 tented villas each have a private pool, opening-special rates apply during the event window, and breakfast and Madresal Beach Club access come with every stay.
How does the Garabito Surf City PRO 2026 relate to the World Surf League Championship Tour?
The Garabito Surf City PRO 2026 is a World Surf League Qualifying Series surf event in Costa Rica, while the World Surf League Championship Tour is the elite level of the sport and part of the path toward a world title. The two are connected through the WSL competition structure, but they are not the same event or the same schedule.