Spring 2006

Secluded Portuguese bay, hidden behind scrub and sand hills, the road snakes over and around. Our battered little bus, top heavy with an assortment of surfing sticks, white grey and ensconced in its own self generated sandstorm. We lurch perilously at sheer drops and sharp turns, we instinctively lean forward as one on the steep uphills, we sit back in relief and roll swiftly down the other side.

On this desert road we can’t even smell the sea. It seems so removed from this alien world. A uniform blue sheet sky houses the spring heat of the harsh sun. The baked hard hillsides look like they have never tasted water. We go up and over and around, seeking an inconceivable ocean. An inconceivable ocean and an unbelievable break.

The desert landscape draws back like stage curtains as we chug through a narrow valley and out into a world where blue horizons touch. Sandy white and empty. If Eden were a beach it would be this one. Similar sentiments must pass through the minds of all surfers finding rumoured, mythical, local breaks, but today this West facing Atlantian cove is my perfection newly discovered.

Taken totally by surprise the driver has unconsciously drifted us to a halt on the dirt road. His awe-opened eyes stare at the movement of the Ocean below. We all lean forward for a better look out his window. The swell is huge at the back and breaking to the left in a long crisp motion. It curls enough that we must each be picturing sneaking a short, crouched ride through the barrel. Early morning sun twinkles like treasure over the virgin surf. Our driver suddenly bursts with enthusiasm and jolts forward, eager to get wet. Eager to deflower this beautiful wave. No one complains at being slammed back in our seats, we all share his eagerness.

Standing in the soft sands the walls of water rolling in look huge. Monstrous. An overhead height, crisp clean barrel on European shores. I almost gasp. The spring swell has met the geology of the bay and their love has given birth to this wave. It is daunting. The power. The weight. It looks enormous from standing, how massive it will be paddling face first in on my belly. I grin and relish the fear. I breathe deep of the salted air and quell the animal panic wriggling into my gut.