After
two days of spending our time at a beach with absolutely no waves, not
even a ripple on still water... We decide to bus it to a small surf
town called Sagres. Sagres is located on the very southwestern tip of
Portugal, and for that matter, it's the second furthest southwestern
point in all of Europe (second to Cabo de Sao Vicente) just 6K's up the
road. We are lured to this town in search of the much read about wave
and wind conditions for both surfing and kite boarding.
This
town has a population of about 3,000 - it's tiny. One main road
through town boasts four, all-in-one surf school, surf camp and surf
shop set ups, a half dozen other surf shops, a small courtyard of cafes
and several trendy bars and restaurants. As you get off the one main
drag in town, the outskirts are littered with more surf shops and surf
camps. The beaches here are majestic, backed by dramatic limestone
cliffs, giving it a very familiar feel to Torrey Pines in San Diego.
The water color, however, goes from hues of clear blue to emerald
green. We stop into Sagres Natura, a surf school with a very friendly
and helpful owner, Celios, to get the surf forecast and conditions for
the upcoming week. Its supposed to pick up in a few days, so we decide
to wait it out, and enjoy the amazing beach weather while there are
just tiny waves, no bigger than a half meter. The beaches here are far
less crowded than Lagos and have a very local feel. The water temp is
on the cold side - at 20 degrees celsius you need a wetsuit to get out
there for an extended period of time. Those out on 10-12 foot long
boards are full suiting it. The cliffs wind their way along the
coastline here, tucking away pristine, gold-sand beaches, so many that
we have our pick of where we want to spend each minute of each day, to
maximize wind and swell direction, not to mention direct sun. Luckily
for us, it's not too windy today and we sample a southeasterly beach in
the morning and follow the sun to Tonel, a southwesterly facing beach
in the afternoon.
The
town here revolves around surf schools, and mostly caters to beginners
and those wanting to have an experience of living the "true surf
lifestyle." For under 600 Euros (like $850 USD), you too can live in a
surf rat shack on the beach, surf your foam boards and party all night.
Sleeping in until 10:30, as there's no such thing as a morning glass
session here. Most "surfaris" don't leave the surf shop until 10:30
a.m., unlike California, where the lineup is full and crowded at 7:00
a.m. The surf challenge here is that you really need a car to get to
the good surf beaches. As we get further away from the European
resort towns along the southern Algarve coast, bus stops are fewer and
far between. Most of the good quality breaks are up the coast from
Sagres, and Sagres is the last regular stop on the local beach town bus
route. We didn't realize this until we got to Sagres. We also didn't
realize there are no car or scooter rental shops here either and the
closest spot to rent wheels is back in Lagos where we just came from.
That said, the beaches all within walking distance from us here in
Sagres are beautiful, have lots of surf potential, so we can see
kicking it here for several days, waiting for the swell to pick up,
then make the decision to go back and get a car.
