Dear Surf Community,
For this entry I thought I would do something different and share with you a transcription of a surf journal entry I wrote about my recent two session day at Supertubos in Peniche, Portugal. I thought it would nice for you all to read my surf journaling to get more perspective into what surfing is like for me. First I have linked the Vimeo I made of the day and following that is the journal entry. At the end of the post I have linked the final trip video with all the clients. In that one you can see some evidence from the bigger day we checked Supertubos.
December 12 Ericeira
I surfed Supertubos twice yesterday. I am sore all over. The wind was hard from the N to the tune of 24 mph. This is side offshore at this speed. Interestingly, if it is N but under 15 mph it is more straight offshore. The huge bulb of depressed fishing canneries that is Peniche protects it from the N wind. The slightly adverse wind kept the crowds off it. Two days prior I had checked it with clients and it was pretty darn firing with perfect offshores and I’d say 4-8ft peaks rolling through. There were a lot of closeouts that day and yesterday as well. It is not a perfect tube like when Rockaway or Moss Landing are doing their things. There are perfect tubes to be sure — it is simply very shifty and tide sensitive. Too low and it is closeout central and body boards only. Too high and it is fun and rippable, but less tubing. Medium towards high is the sweet spot. I did hit that spot on either side of the tide yesterday. Peak high was at 230p. My first session was from 1045a-1245p. I did not make a deep tube. I was in position for a few that would have been incredible, but I was either just 2ft too far outside or as I moved N to get into better position the wind kicked up spray into my eyes and I lost sight of the drop and the line. The waves I did catch were super fun though. As with a lot of tubing, peaky beachbreak, if you can position yourself just under the lip, the drops are a lot easier than you expect. Getting in that right position, however, is the tricky part. I filmed with the GoPro at the start of the session and then the SD card ran out. Annoying, but the tide was on the rise quickly and the tubes were becoming more and more elusive. I put it away and paddled back out. I was in a 4/3 with a slip on hood. Good combo. Water was not too cold but wind is a mofo for keeping body temps normal.
I had an incident in the water with a body boarder. I was paddling up the beach against the rip just to try an uncrowded peak up there. He was positioning himself on the main peak and the rip brought us closer together in our paddling. He pushed harder to force me inside, bumping into me, then pulled my leash and said, “Hey, the next wave that comes through is mine.” I said, “That is fine, have any wave you like.” First of all, body boarders rule that wave. I had watched enough to know that. 9/10 made tubes out there are by body boarders. It makes sense. It is hard to be deep enough out there. The wave does a wobble before the take off, which can buck a surfer who has to stand on her or his feet off — what we call “getting hung up”. Body boarders can use their swim fins to kick through this moment and glide in from deep. They use this method to great effect at Supertubos. And most are pro level with the way they attack the lip in or after or instead of the tube. Simply put, they rip. So I really had no intentions of even looking at that guy’s waves. Ripping on any equipment, however, is not a good reason to behave like a jerk. He then told me that, “He does not like when people paddle near him.” I told him I was just going up to a different peak and again, I will not so much as look at one of his waves. Five minutes later I was 100 yards away from him. The whole affair was a little confusing to me since I had been surfing pretty well on my 5’4” Lost fish, which I was riding with the quad set up. I also had not burned a single person or hassled any one in the lineup. Furthermore there were clearly less competent surfers frothing around the main peak, blowing drops, and surfing with bad style when up. I suppose as with all localism situations, living closer to the break trumps ability level. I think or I felt he was giving me a vibe that I cannot surf. We are all susceptible to persecution and fraudulent identity insecurity! I got redemption about 15 minutes later. The rip pulled me a little closer to him again. He caught a nice set wave left and I got the one behind it that had shifted wider. No tube, but a nice drop. I hit the lip once then hit the end section expediently. The whole thing ended up swallowing me, but I had displayed a proficient and gutsy attack and I had taken my turn. He was on the inside to witness both and I could see in his face that he was over trying to hassle me. Small victory.
Shortly after that I switched strategies and drifted south past the main peak to a fairly consistent left with just one other human on it. There was a group of 3-5 shredding Portuguese grommets out getting filmed by their coach. They utilized the whole beach — the peak to the north, the main area, and the peak to the south. One kid, a tow head in a yellow and purple suit, regular foot, showed me (not intentionally) how serviceable the left down the beach is. He was focused on turns not tubes. He would take off completely focused on slamming the lip instead of getting a tiny cover up and performing a roundhouse. His is the right strategy for heat/competition surfing. I would say he was 16-20 years old. Managed to knife 2-3 fast, precise turns per wave. His friend, a lot darker and shorter, more my build, in a black wetsuit was focused on backside 360 airs and frontside roundhouses. He is a more exciting, explosive surfer (I would later come to learn his name is Gui Fonseca — you can find him on Instagram). Then they had a little, pudgier friend who looked about 13. He has much less natural talent than his older buddies but you can tell he wants to rip. He was focused on inside waves. Very respectful kid clearly in awe of all the adults who surf well. I love the energy of youth in the water, especially when the kids are confident in their ability to get waves and aren’t modeling their behavior after people like the body boarder I ran into earlier.
I had a bit of luck at that left. My second to last wave was the best of my first session. Feet were starting to go numb. A clean peak popped up with a clear left line. I paddled as deep as I could get and did a tiny air drop into the flats. There was a (nice) body boarder on the inside in my line. He gave me the “Oh shit I am in your way” wide eyed look. I bottom turned quickly in front of him. That board is so nimble and squirty! I pulled up into the pocket for a shallow tube/head dip, came out, cut back, then hit the end section. Complete ride. He waved at me as if to say, “Thanks for not killing me. Nice ride.” And somehow there was also that recognitive moment we all crave: “You surf well.” I waved back as if to say, “Thank you. Glad I didn’t kill you. What a fun wave.” I got cold, thirsty, and hungry soon after that one. I was not wearing a watch. I asked a nice kid on the beach — turns out he was half Sardinian and half American — the time. 12:45p. 2 hours. Good session. Saw one of the rippers in the parking lot (it was Gui again) and complimented him on his surfing. Nice kid. Small silver sedan with shortboards inside.
Dec 15 Caparica
That was a lot of writing for my sore hand to do all at once! I did not even get to detail my second session, which was better than the first one. After that first session I drove over to Cantinho, north of Supertubos and the town of Peniche, just to the south side of Baleal Island. There is a cool bar/restaurant called Bar da Praia there right on the break. I ordered a soup and a beer (5 Euros total), put my headphones on, and had an hour long work call. I considered the left at Cantinho. It looked fun but extremely windy — Baleal is a smaller piece of land than Peniche — it blocks the N wind, but not nearly as much. It looked uncomfortably cold. I thought about just driving to Ericeira and checking into my Air Bnb. No matter what Cantinho was going to be too cold and too mushy to be worth a session. I decided I would at least check Supertubos again on my way out of town. Definitely a good call. The wind had lightened up a bit and the waves looked really fun. I put on my green goblin suit and a hooded vest underneath and walked down the beach. I had brought the GoPro but decided against it. Why not just have a fun session without the evidence? It is still surfing, and I do not need to capitalize on every session in that way. This time I had more of a sense of the lineup and stayed to the left of the main peak. I was basically surfing alone. I did not really want to go right — the lefts had looked better all day — but some excellent rights came in my direction. One stood out. It was slightly overhead. Smooth drop. Big, green, open wall standing up over my front (right) shoulder. I laid into the bottom turn and knifed what felt like one of the smoothest backside turns I have done in while. I got more rotation out of my hips than usual to send the board more vertically before pressing into my left foot harder, pivoting on the tail, and swinging the board around. The quad set up drove through the turn like the board had a set track. Nothing bobbled or felt weird. I came back into the pocket and the wave dissipated. It felt great.
That was second to the one tube I managed to get. It was a chip shot left with a very, very backlit green wall and translucent lip. The sun was about 2 ft above the horizon from a standing on the beach perspective. Sun sets in the west so that’s out to sea here, as it is in California. I bottom turned up under the pitching lip, tucked my butt close to my left heel, and gaped my mouth open as the lip threw clear over me. One. Two. And out. Not a long one, but I finally got a tubo at Supertubos. I must say that that wave made my trip. The setting sun was beaming in my face as I paddled back out smiling to myself with the refrain, “I got a tube at Supertubes,” playing on repeat in my head. Two sessions in and mission accomplished. I caught a few more before I again got cold. That was always intended to be a shorter session. I even wore my watch to make sure I surfed exactly one hour. I exited the water stoked, walked up to my towel and effects, grabbed my phone out of my pink Peli case (that used to belong to my grandfather and which I take everywhere), and snapped some photos of the sunset. I suppose I am addicted to photographic ‘evidence’. I have a lot of people I want to share these experiences with, so even if the session is not captured I like to at least score a lineup shot memento to text to friends and clients and to share on social media.
After the session I picked up a few groceries at the Intermarche in Peniche (should have grabbed more tinned sardines dag nabbit!), fueled up the rental car, and drove to Ericeira. I spent three days there not surfing. Instead I made client vids from the past week, cleaned up some business details, did some reading and writing, and touristed around the town. As promised at the outset here is the trip vid:
It was another epic trip to Portugal with a whole different crew! Bonnie and Brenna were with me for the first part in Lisbon and we were later joined by Jess, Cara, Richard, and Brad in Peniche. The two waves in this video are Sao Pedro do Estoril and Cantinho da Baia, mentioned above. There is some excellent footage Brenna and Bonnie shot of me at Cantinho and some extra GoPro pov stuff for you to study what it’s like to look down the line from take off through your pop up. Remember, if you’re not looking, you’re not surfing!