Portugal 2005
AHH the sunny Algarve, known for it's tropical climate, golf buggies and retired celebrities finding that bit of winter sunshine. The Algarve has a hidden gem that more and more surfers are becoming more aware of, a beautiful coastline, un spoilt beaches and a huge swell window unblocked by any islands. So the Algarve has everything you would wish for a memorable surf trip, and yes the surf academy will most definitely have a memorable surf trip.
The first of its kind and what an absolute beauty it was.
The week started off with aching limbs and a dash of colour on the surfed out faces, Newquay's 2-3 foot off shore was left behind as the convoy of cars left Newquay, 11.45 am, 3.5 hours to get to Bristol. All the boards were stacked in the transporter will the Knottster at the wheel, keen to show the other drivers a clean pair of heals, Big Keith provided the tunes ' Guns and Roses' and they were off. The 323 was off like a rocket and hit the A30 at Roche to a slow moving bank holiday traffic quickly followed by the transporter (Sweet child of mine) the POLO was already lagging behind as a slow fuel stop and an unforeseen trip to the A30 via Quintrell downs meant that the POLO was already 10-15 min's behind. The convoy managed to hit a little clear road before being pulled back on the reigns by the heavy traffic, one quick text from the POLO 'We are still in Newquay' got Big Keith to turn down G + S 'there is a God' but alas they were only joking and the torture continued. The M5 approached and the Transporter made minced meat of the 323 as it glided past, with an oblivious fudster at the wheel. And then carnage. The M5 was bunged an accident had just happened, it was like driving through the streets of New York, fire engines everywhere but luckily no signs of any real damage. Luckily for the front 2 cars they glided through the traffic and where quickly on their way. Bristol Airport approached and we were nearly there, just after the gate had opened, plenty of time to get the cars down to the car park and back up for check in. 7 Board bags, 12 surf boards and a sponge all checked in and ready to go, the only down side was that the POLO was still stuck on the M5, they had been stuck in the heavy traffic at the approach to the M5. Big Keith was in a panic, the knottster was distinctly worried as the gate was closed and still no sign, then a phone call they were here, Big Keith wet himself as the POLO sped past the front lobby. But they were too late even the helpful lady at the board payment area was unsure that she would be able to help us. The Knottster ran out and parked the POLO in the overly expensive long stay car park just happy to have the purple sloth at the airport, the only parking space available was funnily enough the furthest one away from the terminal. Linford Christy would have been pleased with the time it took to cover the 400 metres, Red Rum would have been happy with the fence jumping and yes the POLO boys had just managed to get themselves onto the flight. I believe it was the Jelly Babies that clinched it as the lady at the Easy Jet checkout was a little fond of sweets. So 4.25pm the boys climbed the steps to the Easy Jet plane, take off time 4.25pm, all present and correct.
The flight was a little boring after the panic of getting everyone on the plane, but the group touched down at a slightly warmer FARO. The boards all came through unscathed and the cars were picked up from the AUTO JARDIM, an excellent car hire co. We had managed to get ourselves a new VW T5 and a Booh Transit, the T5 was wicked and with its excellent fold down seats was spot on for the board transportation vehicle, the Tranny was OK as a minibus but the breaks were shocking. After a short trip around the back streets of Faro we were off to the villa Quinta Das Avores.
A few wrong turns later and a sketch out of scrap heap challenge, which minibus would make it up the almost vertical mud track? and we arrived to Judy and John, the management couple at the villa. They were extremely nice as 12 lads rocked up at the villa and quickly ran around choosing beds for the duration of the stay.The guys were hungry and a quick decision was made to venture over to LUZ to find some food, the first place we venture into reassured us that no where would be serving food at such a late hour, so the group had a well earned beverage. Hurlster had managed to pull off the deal of the century 12 helpings of bangers and mash, a right result. This trip was turning out to be an absolute winner.
TONNEL DAY ONE
DAWN PATROL had gone off in search of a good spot, they came back with stories of 4ft and a little on shore, the boys had enjoyed their first taste of Portuguese surf. The main party went to the supermarket to stock up on essential daily items, tomatoes, lettuce, David Seaman, bread etc. Yes David Seaman wandered in the supermarket, got his eggs and bacon, cheese and other essential items and quickly disappeared. Thomas did comment that he had put a little weight on since his retirement, which did not go down too well with the pony tailed giant.
A short trip from the villa towards Sagres lead us to the beaches of Tonel and Beliche, the later was a little small and the decision was made to surf at Tonel. There was only 5 boys out in one spot and the academy felt it was a little rude on our first day to jump straight on a peek with a group of Portuguese so the group split, the break was very heavy and the surf was a good 4ft, for our first surf in Portugal it was a little taster of what we had to come. The picture does not really do it any justice as the surf was pretty heavy and quite wedgy.
After a heavy session we opted for a chill out surf around the corner which gave some of the academy students a really good opportunity to have some fun on mellow waves. Beliche is renound for its heavy left hander that comes off the rocks but on this occasion it was a mellow wave with little punch.
So the evening came around and the sun burnt faces had enjoyed their first day of Portuguese surf, but the night was still young and there was to be much merriment. Knotters was in the hot seat with the cooking and knocked up a chicken pasta salad, with a slightly bizarre combination of boiled eggs and avocado. It was ok for the first meal of the week, mixed with a couple of local brews it went down ok. So the evening went on with the students enjoying small talk and the teachers dabbling at three card brag, much to the enjoyment of James and the Hurlster. The three novices at the game all came a cropper to the vast knowledge of the three card brag masters.
So as the evening drew to a close the teachers and the students made there way up to bedfordshire some enjoyed a little light reading before bedtime. Just reading up on those breaks he had left back at home in Wales, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Day Two Amado
Well what a beautiful day, the sun was out, the swallows were swooping over the swimming pool, getting an early morning drink, the group was a little slow to rise after the previous hard day of surf . There was a little wind in the air which was thought to be off shore, this is a real difficulty in Portugal you think it is off shore but you can never really get your bearings, you also suffer a little from the on shore breezes in the afternoon brought in by the high land temperatures, similar to France in the summer. BUT today we were blessed, the surf was a similar size to day one but a little better for everyone. We had arrived at low tide and Amado looked perfect, a long beach with two distinctly different peaks, one right hander to the right of the beach and on the other side a heavy left, the students were the first in on the quiet right hander and made the most of the conditions before the peak became busy.
The other members of the group and the rest of the surfing community were soon in and the peak soon became busy, there was one particular surf coach who made particular friends with Adrian as he had dropped in quite deliberatley and preceeded to snake along the wave much to Adrian's disgust. But there were plenty of waves too be had and had them we did, the Fudster carved many a tight line on his favoured fore hand and was many a time in the correct spot to pickoff the bowling rights.
He Man picked off a few with his power from Greyskull, he certainly showed the power. As you can see from the pictures above the shore break at the end of the wave was heavy as hell.
Adrian found this much too his enjoyment, he had taken a set wave ever so slightly out of control, regained composure slighty and found a fast inside section, which ended with the board dropping 4 ft into 2 ft water quickly followed byhimself, one of the best wipe outs of the week.
Amado had really shown it's true potential as being an excellent wave, but more was yet too come, the tide quickly pushed in and the waves changed for the better, the left at the far end of the beach soon became more manageable. Unfortunately the distance the wave was breaking out made it extremely difficult to get any photo's but be assured this left hander was absolutely awesome. There was two middle aged Portuguese guys who knew the wave inside out, they absoulutely distroyed it, much to the annoyance of most of the on looking surfers. This was a day that would go down as a beauty.
Day Three Tonel
The day started much the same as the other two, the early morning dawn patrol had swelled to a staggering 5 and they headed off to Amado to find what looked like perfect conditions, the swell had decreased but the winds had increased considerably. They were offshore but the strength was causing the waves to be very difficult to get onto and thus created a frustrating early surf. The rest of the crew slowly came out of their burrows to a gorgeous morning but as I mentioned before very strong winds so it was going to be difficult to find somewhere that could cope with the strength. The baguettes were made, by this time a team approach was in full steam and batch baguetted production was essential to get 12 guys out onto the road before 10.30am.
So the search was on, Adrian had talked about a left hand point that might work as it would be more sheltered from the winds, but it was going to be tricky to find, it meant going a little off road actually a lot off road about 20 mins of track which both vans were not too worried about. We eventually found what looked like the left point but unfortunately the wind was so strong that it had reduced the swell size to virtually nothing, but the crew could see its potential and looked forward to another day when it might be working. So the decision was made to go back to Tonel to surf there. We were only expecting a small wave but maybe more protection, we were extremely lucky as Tonel faces more Westerly and could cope with the strong Easterly winds, we arrived at Tonel to find a small wave but lighter offshore winds. So the guys set up camp and once more geered ourselves up for a day of surf. The last time we surfed Tonel it was large and heavy but today it was small and perfectly formed.
SURF ANGELS obviously were looking down on us!! Or where they?
The surf as you can see below was lovely, the numbers out on the break were small, probably 6 of us and everybody was taking their turn and respecting everybody else. Reuben was doing his usual when in Rome when ever Adrian got a wave but to be fair there was plenty to go around until a collection of Sagres Spongers came out. They simply paddled over and sat on the peak, using their presence to change the atmosphere on the break. As mentioned earlier Reuben dropped in as usual, but this time we had a sponger on the wave at the same time. Much annoyance by Reuben and Adrian was shown which resulted in Adrian continuing the journey along the wave with a Portuguese sponger squaling in front. Adrian and the sponger both finished on the wave and continued their discussion about the quality of the wave when there is only one person on it, the sponger took his flippers off and was gesturing to hit Adrian much to his hilarity. They both paddled back out to the break once more and hell broke loose, the tribe of spongers decided that it was necessary to show that this is their break and that they are the only one's who are able to surf it!! NAH this ain't right!! Localism is utter Rubbish, the ocean is their as a playground for everybody no matter how good you are. Anyway the cuffufle calmed itself eventually after much swearing and raised hands. Many thanks to the Low Tide owner from Newquay who was on the break at the same time as us, he used his vast knowledge of Portuguese and told the Sagres Spongers to **** ***.
On the point of Localism, I hate it, I remember a very well known and experienced shaper who has worked and surfed in Newquay for years, he dropped in on me at North Fistral and continued to surf the wave even though I was right behind him and had pointed out many times that it was my wave. His repost to my annoyance was learn to ******** surf.
Ah the inteligence of the Newquay surfer! This is why we have the Surf Academy @ Treviglas to try and educate and create more literate surfers.
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Day Four Figuiera
We knew that the surf was going to be small, so we thought that we should search for a spot that would attract a little more swell than anywhere else. We discussed where to go and we opted for a beach that was very open and looked like it was facing the correct direction to attract any swell that might be out in the Atlantic. So we packed up the vans as usual, baguettes were made and we where on a surfari, actually we were going to be off roading. LETS OFF ROAD, the track off the main road was a beauty, you could give it some gas without the fear of killing the vans, I have just been reading about the outback in Australia and the red dust track was not far from this, the amount of dust that the vans created was amazing and with the contrast of the clear blue sky it was pretty impressive. We arrived at what can be described as an opening to a huge beach, if you could drive straight down to Penhale Sands and looked along the beach the view would be very similair. We had atleast 3 miles of beach with probably 5 people on it and hmm no one in the surf at all. Yes it was small but it looked damm inviting as the temperatures were the hottest we had had all trip, the Tranporter was reading 25°c . Many of the group took the opportunity to have a boardies surf. They enjoyed 30 mins but soon came running back, looking like Billy Connelly 'Pale Blue' The surf was not the best, but it was surfable and probably the best we were going to get today so we opted to stay for the day. The break did improve and produced one of the heaviest 2ft waves that you would ever surf. As with virtually everyday that we surfed the crew always managed to inherit a dog, this time it was a Portuguese water dog and it was really cool.
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After a super day on the beach it was time we had a barby, Ellis was in charge and Callum helped out with the production of the meat and fish feast.
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Day 5 Carrapaterra At this point of the report I hand you over to Big Keith, 'cough'
Keith’s Big Lefts!
We started off the day as usual, made a load of baguettes then set off driving around looking for the best beach to surf. When we got to Carrapaterra it was low tide and the point break we’d been hearing about didn’t look to good. The teachers wanted to stay and swore it would pick up later, some of the other students weren’t up for it so they took us to look at one other beach just to show us that no where else would be better. The winds were south Westerly and reasonably strong and so the small land outcrop was providing a small amount of protection.
I had insisted earlier on in the morning that it would be a great idea to buy some batteries for the house stereo so that we could have some music to chill out to. The carrying of the stereo was fine but when accompanied by a board rucksack, all the food/drinks etc, and a couple of wetsuits it suddenly became very difficult, faced by a lagoon and no bridge, I was suddenly stranded, everyone else just waded in and walked across in flip flops, but I was wearing trainers with socks and was stuck. It was hard enough to carry the stuff I had with out a pair of trainers. Eventually I was helped out by someone else and my slight panic was over.
We got onto the beach after the usual situation of people taking down what they had brought with them and leaving all the food etc for anyone else to bring down. I whacked the tunes right up, sat down with the typical bunch of stray dogs that wondered over, and munched out on some baguettes.
The waves started to pick up, but getting to the best break involved paddling behind a huge cliff with lots of sharp jagged rocks to get battered on. The paddle out looked pretty simple but there was a very strong rip that just pulled you straight over to the middle of the beach. The first time I went in it was well scary and I only caught one wave and ended up really knackered.
When I got onto dry land, I felt shattered and felt like, 'I can’t be bothered to go back in and just get nailed!’ I sat there with the crew and our collection of stray drooling dogs and started chilling out, trying to recover from the harsh battering I had taken.
Eventually everyone else got out of the sea and the whole crew were sitting there chilling. When impulsively I just put on my summer suit and headed for the gnarly sea. As I walked off the boy’s called out ‘where you going’? I was like ‘dunno yet’, and they replied ‘just going to go in and see where the rips take you? See you next week mate’. The rip currents were big and powerful. I started paddling out and the rip got hold of me and sucked me about ½ a mile up the beach. I didn’t know but the boys had the camera on me. I started getting a bit scared as I could hardly see the beach and there were no other surfers around, I was paddling like a nutter for every wave I saw with no success, then all of a sudden this huge beast jacked up and I slid down it and rode it right along the beach. It was just my luck that the guys had just stopped filming. I decided to get out, walk along the beach and paddled behind the huge cliff again. By this time the waves had seriously picked up. It was about 6-8 foot. When I got round to the cliff, some of the others had got in. There were huge beasty waves breaking on me as I was trying to get out. It was really exhausting, I just kept on paddling. There were waves breaking right out to sea but also some closer in. I hadn’t been out there long when an 8ft wave came up behind me. Adrian shouted me on to it ‘Go Keith, paddle, Paddle!’ I caught it and rode it right along to the left. I remember thinking ‘that was probably the best wave of my life’. The size and the power of the wave was immense and it definitely was a beauty.
The point break certainly was working now and many Portuguese locals had
turned up to surf the chunky left handers, they obviously had a little more
local knowledge than myself and the rest of the group. There was a huge rip
dragging me over to the left. So I had to keep paddling as hard as I could
to the right just to stop myself from being battered on the rocks. The water
was really packed by this point which was well and truely annoying as well.
We’d had some trouble with some of the Portuguese locals already on some
of the other beaches we’d been to previously, so we did not want any more.
I paddled over to the right to get in the right place to catch the best waves which was further behind the cliff. I caught another huge beast which took me further in towards the cliff and the jagged rocks. After I came off the wave I thought ‘I have got to get out there as quick as possible’. I started getting absolutely nailed! Huge waves were breaking on my head really bad, every time I got back on my board to paddle another wave just sucked me under for ages, it was hurting my lungs. It felt like they were going to explode, at one point I felt my foot hit a rock and I thought ‘right, I’m getting too close to that cliff now’. I looked forward and the cliff with all the huge rocks was really close in front towering above me. Every time a wave hit me it took me a little closer to the rocks. I thought ‘if I don’t get out there soon I’m dead’. The waves just kept on battering the hell out of me! I could see the lads standing on top of a pile of rocks jumping around screaming at me and pointing out to see. I thought ‘there’s no way I’m gonna get out there so I just paddled as hard and fast as I could to the left, parallel to the front of the cliff. I could hardly even see because of the water spraying up. My arms were killing but I just gave it every thing I had. I thought ‘this is it. I’m paddling for my life now’. The next time I looked up the entire cliff and all the surfers were miles over to the right. I had paddled right past the end of the cliff. I was lucky because there was a really strong rip going in exactly the same direction as I was paddling.
I went close in to shore were there was a rip going back towards the cliff
and paddled back behind it for some more waves. It took me a while to get
another wave. I kept paddling for waves but not getting them. Then soon enough
I caught another beast. It was a fat wave and I was well happy with it. By
this point it was getting so heavy. Huge waves were breaking miles out to
sea. I couldn’t seem to get to right out to them but I was still far enough
out. I went for another wave (about 8 ft) and totally nose dived. It flipped
me right over on to my back and I was under for ages. Normally I just wait
until the wave spits me back out on top but I was under for ages so I started
swimming for the surface. I couldn’t seem to get up to the top and I started
wondering ‘am I swimming the right way? I just kept swimming and swimming
then my reactions took over and I just started breathing in under water.
My Epee Glottis must have shut off to stop the water going into my lungs.
Then finally I reached the surface. I saw some of the teachers like Adrian
and Tom. They said ‘are you up for getting out now?’ I was like ‘yeah’.
We got the vans all loaded up and set off. Nearly every road in Portugal has massive ditches by the side of the road. The one that we were driving on the way home didn’t for some reason. We were racing along with the song, Revolution, by Tracy Champan blaring out as loud as that tape player could possibly go when Adrian suddenly said ‘I thought I felt this van wobble then’. The tunes were suddenly stopped and we carried on rolling smoothly for a while. All of a sudden rough smoke started rushing in through the windows and we heard a huge noise. Adrian jammed the anchors on and beeped the horn continuously to try unsuccessfully to get the attention of the guys in other van.
We had a spare tyre and eventually got it changed and got back on the road. When we got back to the villa that night I watched some of the camera footage which had me on a huge wave and there were a couple of photos as well. Then we just chilled out with some tea a few beers for the rest of the night.
Cheers Keith
To be fair the waves at Carapeterra that afternoon were pretty big and bouncy and if you got yourself into trouble it would have been difficult to sort yourself out. Below are some of the other shots from the day. If I remember correctly that evening we didn't just chill out with tea and a few beers it was off to the Pig in Burgau for a bit of fodder and a fun quiz, which ended up being at Knotty's expense. The quiz was just for fun as the games master kept on informing us but I think that the questions had been rigged, there were two teams that got virtually everything right and the collection of 4 teams that where scrapping the barrel trying to find the answers to atleast one. But Norfolk and Chance and Knotty is *** managed to come a respectable last and equal second last respectively.
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