 The pale turquoise of the reef shimmered under my board as I paddled towards a perfect A-frame peak that was peeling off the edge of a submarine rock-slab. The first heat of the spring sun was just beginning to build but already water was warm enough for just a shorty wetsuit. As I reached the take-off point and pulled myself into a sitting position, a shadowy form cut across the surface of the water a hundred yards away. I let the first few waves pass unmolested under my board while I watched the school of dolphins move off towards the watery horizon.
A bell tolled in Praia da Luz’s whitewashed church, reminding me that I was not alone on a tropical atoll after all, but on Portugal’s apparently touristy Algarve coast. It was eight o’clock the bell told me, and I had better things to do than to sit there daydreaming.
With almost a thousand miles of spectacularly wild coastline, Portugal is justly known as Europe’s best and most consistent surf destination.
Around the northern fishing villages of Ericeira and Peniche there are countless reefs and beach-breaks and spots like Supertubes and Coxos have earned a near-legendary place in European surf-lore. During autumn and spring, however, every surfer worth his salt longs to head for the area around Sagres (the most south-western town in mainland Europe) where the warm waters of the Algarve clash with the brash waves of the open Atlantic. This is the ‘Golden  Triangle’ of Portuguese surfing and the dozens of point-breaks, beaches and reefs here seem to act as a magnet on whatever swells are building out in the stormy expanses of the Atlantic. The little white-washed village of Carrapateira is known as the ‘surf-centre’ for this region and, with great beach-breaks like Praia do Amado, Bordeira and (just a little farther north) Arrifana within a short drive, there are few days when a classy wave is not within easy reach.
The consistency and the variety of breaks make this a great area also for novice surfers. There are several surf-schools based in the triangle between Lagos, Sagres and Aljezur and a 5-day training course (including equipment hire, coaching, transportation and lunch) can be found here for as little as £100.
 Apart from particularly busy routes you can board Portuguese buses with a surfboard, but a vehicle is essential if you want to reach anything but the most accessible of city beaches. When the west coast is blown-out and onshore you simply drive half-hour south, over the cork-forested hills, to the Algarve (Praia da Luz – with its infamous Black Rock reef-break – or the slightly more remote Zavial) where you can take advantage of warmer water to go with that crisp offshore breeze.
With so many miles of wave-washed beaches, crowds are never a problem and – as long as you paddle out with a good attitude and a cheery “bom dia” – you will find that the localism that plagues so many other legendary surf-destinations is almost unheard of here. In fact, like the local dolphins, Portuguese surfers seem to be marine mammals of an intensely social type. You will sometimes see more than a dozen surfers lining up, in a spirit of good-natured competition, for a single wave while just a hundred yards up the beach an equally good peak goes totally un-ridden.
They say that if you know your way around the curving beaches and nooky coves of Portugal’s ‘Golden Triangle’ you will, on any given day, find the ideal wave…and, with a bit of luck, you might not have to share it with anyone but the dolphins!
5 other European spots:
England:
Newquay, in Cornwall, is still the surf capital of the UK. The coastline here is a series of cliffy headlands that jut out into the Atlantic like dragons-heads…or Cornish pixies (depending on the mood of the ocean that day). Because beaches and reefs face in all directions, while there is a swell there will always be a good break somewhere along the coast. In summer the waves can be inconsistent – and crowded when good – but the Autumn swells are what draw surfers to the area, with a clean, big day at Fistral Beach providing some of the highest standards of local surfers that you will see anywhere in the world.
France:
It is with good reason that the Biarritz region of south-western France has become home to several retired surfing legends (Tom Curren and Mickey ‘Da Cat’ Dora et al), who were seduced by the classy waves. The area boasts some of the best beach-breaks in the world, but is also known for a wide variety of reefs, river-mouths and point-breaks. The warm Gulf Stream currents sweep onto the continental shelf here to keep with water temperature pleasant enough for board-shorts from about June to September.
Spain:
The thousand miles of sweeping beaches and craggy granite outcrops that surrounds northern Spain is a surfer’s paradise for much of the summer. Until recent construction work on the harbour-mouth damaged the formation of the reef, the freight-train lefthander of Mundaka was rated as one of the ten best waves in the world. There are scores of more consistent spots however between San Sebastian’s Zurriola beach and the wild Galician coastline that borders Portugal.
Ireland:
The Emerald Isle deserves the title of ‘the wild card of European surf destinations.’ The West Coast has the reputation of being a savage land of undiscovered and un-surfed waves. Surfers are returning from Irish ‘surfaris’ with tales of isolated reefs that attract the monster swells of the north Atlantic. The water can be cold and the weather almost perpetually humid…but the fact that you’re rarely far from a warm pub and good ‘craic’ more than compensates.
‘The Frozen North’:
Scotland and Norway pick up the swell generated by storms in North Sea and both these places have excellent breaks for hardy surfers. Unfortunately, there is often little to be ridden here in the warmer (relatively) summer months. Iceland has scores of – not surprisingly – un-crowded breaks. A few, like Evan’s Reef and Grindavik Lighthouse, are already being talked about in hushed tones as the surf frontiers of the future.
Don’t tell anyone! |
"He who dies with the most experiences wins"
return