Words: Sydney Pizza
Heyoooo, checking in one last time from Europe before it’s back to reality! We made it to Lisbon safe and sound, grabbed our rental car, and headed straight into the city for some dinner and rest. The next day we woke up early and headed to the beach to meet up with team rider Kika Freire at her home break for a super sick sesh with some other locals! Check out that highlight reel on our Instagrams! The waves were super fun, and the vibes were even more incredible. Much like France, in Portugal you have a pretty short window of good skim due to the tide swings, so we got two pretty sick sessions in, and had tons of fun!
After a quick 48 hours in Lisbon, we headed north to scope out the legendary Nazaré, spend some time in Porto, and along the way see what Supertubos is doing. Every single region and beach in Portugal are so distinct, authentic, and history-rich; it is raw and not modernized which is incredible to see. After that the plan was to head to the Algarve region of Portugal (in the south) to hopefully find some new spots and maybe an early-season sider. What we did not expect to find were all these little fort-like towns along the way. On the main highway, at just about every exit, there are these signs for towns that are enclosed, like a fort, but inside is the most stunning old-town city, that once had its own King or Queen and has hundreds of years of history inside. After getting sidetracked maybe one too many times, between the towns and some more skim spots, but with no regrets we made it to Lagos.
Elian had been messaging with a couple of locals to get the skinny on where to go and which spots might be working, so we grabbed our boards and went exploring! After a little bit of spot check and driving, we were up on a look out spot, and happened to look down and saw a working, skimmable wave, and decided to trek down the cliff to that beach. Low and behold, It was a decent size, playful and easy to catch! We stayed for a couple of hours and liked it so much that we headed back the next day! It was easily my favorite wave that we had found in Portugal, not just because it was super fun, but because it was off the beat and path and getting there was half the adventure itself! From there it was onto Spain.
Whilst in La Tranche, we met some of the coolest skimmers from Malaga, a town in the south of Spain in the state of Andalucia, about an hour west of Cadiz. Our original plan was after Portugal to drive straight to Cadiz to catch some iconic waves at the Faro del Trafalgar, but there was no swell there those days, so we changed plans and headed straight to Malaga. We spent about five days there and that was definitely NOT enough time. Not only did we catch fun waves and eat incredible food, but we got to hang out with incredible people. A community that is warm, and welcoming and felt like home away from home. Neither one of us wanted to leave when it came time, so we all made sure that it was more of a ‘see-you-soon’ and less of a goodbye, everyone knew that we would be back soon. That was easily the BEST way to end the skim portion of our trip.
From Malaga, we hit the road and headed back to Lisbon to catch a train eventually getting us to France to explore the French Riviera in Antibes for five days, and Paris for another four. After an incredible five and a half weeks traveling all around Europe, all the sightseeing that barely scratched the surface, and wave hunting with our new skim family, we jumped back on the trains, planes, and automobiles, and finally made our way back home to Dewey Beach, Delaware.
From the bottom of our hearts, we want to say thank you to our newfound skim family in France, Spain, and Portugal for the immense hospitality and open arms that we were welcomed everywhere we went. There really is nothing like making community and bonds for life over the same passion. This has been the most unforgettable trip of our lives, and my biggest dream come true, until next time!
CATCH UP ON PART 1 & PART 2 NOW!