Monday – updating

Well, we can’t really complain, can we? As I stated before, this is being one of the most consistent summers in years. People are surfing winter spots in the middle of August… in trunks!

And these last two weeks haven’t been that different. Sure, we haven’t had another big swell but look at these 3 shots:

Nice overhead waves in Sopelana two Wednesdays ago by Surf 30.

Nice, calm and settled in Galiza the next day (by Dani).

And another nice swell last Thursday, smack in the middle of the 5*WQS that was taking place in Pantin. It’s not often that WQS surfers get to surf these conditions, especially during the European summer leg (by KingMatt).

On a more personal level I can’t complain as I’ve managed to score a few nice waves since arriving from Portugal. We have just entered September, which is supposed to be one of the best months of the year, and after spending the whole weekend in bed (cold) it looks like it’s going to be very small but clean and off-shore today and tomorrow, building up on Wednesday and then big and on-shore for the rest of the week. All I need is to get rid of this cold and to resume my surfing training in order to be in shape by the end of the month, when we shall be bailing to Bali.

P.S.: Btw, this coming weekend the 7th Royal Single Trophée is taking place in Anglet (Friday to Sunday)… but I’m afraid that the waves and the weather will not be very cooperative. Shame.

Over & out.

Today – summer!!

While we were enduring muddy chocolate-like water at home yesterday, things looked much nicer further West:

Pantin (out of the bay) by Dani.

Salinas by Clau.

Today i had to go to France: Anglet first, and Capbreton later. Today summer arrived; it was about time. Normally this time of the year my pair of slaps/flip-flops/sandals/whatever you want to call them are halfway through their life cycle. This year they still are (almost) brand new. Anyway, I had a little surf in Anglet (tiny, tiny, tiny) and while in Capbreton I took this picture of the famous bunkers in what seemed a swimming pool.

I might not be able to log in until Sunday night. We have a nice swell arriving tomorrow, and tomorrow night I’m planning to sleep in the van somewhere in the French forest, to get the best of it on Friday am. And then it’s on to the Cosmic Children Festival.

Over & out.

This past week in the Bay – little waves, fun people & cheap talk!!

What a flat week it's been!! Since the weekend of May the 1st that there hasn’t been a proper swell in the Bay (unlike outside the Bay, as proved by the waves I got last week –see tag on the road-). Let’s hope it’s not the sign of things to come.

(It's been like this for weeks)

The silly season is just around the corner and some events are waking up the beaches, nooks and crannies of the Bay after the long, quiet and wonderful fall and winter (sigh). But let me tell a little story about a friend who has been visiting the Bay this week. His name is Didac and he is the shaper/glasser/polisher/painter and owner of Montjuich Surfboards, a little brand that makes vintage boards (pre 1982) only based near Barcelona, on the Med coast.

(Didac after-surf)

It turns out that some years ago Didac was a big fan of the late Miki Dora and his attitude towards life, surfing, crowds, etc… and created a Church dedicated to spreading the word of Dora. He even printed some little cards that he would give away (or sell) to people. One summer night in Biarritz a slightly drunk Didac was on his way to his van when he ran into Joel Tudor, who was in town for some Longboard contest. Didac approached Joel and after introducing himself, he gave him one of his Dora cards. Now, those of you who have watched the acclaimed One California Day movie will remember that the film takes us into Joel Tudor’s home in California, and… what can we see pinned on one wall in his living room? Didac’s Dora-card!!

(Didac's Dora card)

So anyway, Didac was here this week and we had a couple of surfs after work at some reefbreaks in Guéthary. Guéthary was also one of the favourite places of Dora when in France, and they’ve got a little plaque in his honous on a bench he used to sit to check the waves.

("Dedicated to Miklos Sandor Dora...")

One day I took Didac to Esteve Rosés’ place. Esteve is a Catalan surfer who has spent most of his life in Guéthary. He is cited a couple of times in Les Tontons Surfeurs, a book about the French surfing pioneers, as he started surfing right after them, and has held (and still does) several jobs within the surf industry. Esteve is also the publisher of the first free Spanish surf newspaper, Surf Time and still finds time to run a brand new surfshop (hardcore goods only) right next to his house.

(Last Surf Time's cover)

When I informed Esteve that Didac was in town, he wanted to meet him to discuss the possibility of stocking some of his boards in the shop. At the same time, we got the opportunity to study Esteve’s first board, a 40 year old beauty.

(Esteve, Didac & 40 year old board)

Talking about Joel Tudor: this week we found out that he will be attending the Salinas Longboard Festival in early August. This Festival, now in its 6th or 7th year, is always held during the first weekend of August at this popular beach near Gijon (Asturias). Besides the contest (open to everyone with a log and a nice attitude) there are tons of good friendly vibes, some barbeques, concerts and movies in the open air. If you want to spend a weekend with over a hundred friendly longboarders, this is where you should go. Some of the top European surfers (Spaniards, French, Portuguese and Brits) have entered the contest in the last couple of years, but one thing most of the regulars remember is the visit of a world class longboard such as Beau Young a couple of years ago. Beau came to surf, jam and enjoy himself and lots of Salinas regulars still remember his visit as one of the highlights of the Festival… if not of their lives!! It is fair to assume that Joel’s visit this year will reach, at least, the same level of stokedness. All the longboarding blogs and forums are full of it, and I have never seen so many grown up men behaving like teenage fans like that before... three months before the Festival!!! I wouldn’t be surprised if by the Sunday evening Tudor has a tired wrist and some sore cheekbones from all the smiling, hand shaking, autograph signing and photo posing that he will have to endure. Oh well!!

(One of the traditions of the Salinas Festival is to have a group photo)

Let’s go shorter: This week the O’Neill The Mission – somewhere in France event started. For the last two years, O’Neill had invited the top four surfers of the O’Neill Highland WQS plus some some O’Neill wildcards to a luxury cruise around French Polynesia where they held a free surfing contest in which the competitors were also the judges. This year the budget for this event has somehow shrunk and the luxury cruise boat has been turned into some rental motor homes and the perfect waves of Tahiti into the flat waves of France during one of the traditionally flattest months of the year. Maybe after all signing Jordy Smith was quite expensive.

Warning: If you intend to visit Les Landes during the coming weeks, be aware that the ISA World Junior Championship will be held in the area from May the 24th to June the 6th. There will be plenty of testosterone filled young guns with amazing water skills.

Cheap talk: Lewis Samuels and Surfline have done it again. It seems that provocation is the only weapon they have to attract web traffic. Shame on them. What was presented as a honest review of the WCT Top 45 surfers has turned into a "got an e-mail from Kelly Slater and all the non american surfers are lame" kind of gibberish. Please bring back Derek Hynd's reviews; at least he had walked the walk before talking the talk. Saddest note of the week by far.

And to end it all some photos from this week’s action (or lack of thereof):

(Monday - Pantín - Dani)

(Thursday - Salinas - Jaider)


(Today - SW France - the 2 reefs in action)

(Today - after surf sunset - no photoshop)

Over & out.

On the road – friday & saturday – days six & seven

And that’s it; we are back at home. Seeing the forecasts we decided to come back today -one day earlier- so we can have the whole of Sunday at home before going back to work. On Friday we saw –and surfed- the last of the swell at Pantin: 1-2’, nice and not too windy.

(The little beach near Pantin where we spent most of Friday afternoon)


(Another ría -fjord-. There's a bar in that city in the background where one can eat the best calamari ever... no argument!)

(Finally i found a lawn on which to take a photo of my quiver: (from l to r) fish quad 6'1'', retro bonzer 6'4'' and modern trifin 6'4''. The only board missing is my 6'11'' bonzer gun.)

Then we spent the whole afternoon at a beach nearby and walking the dogs near Dani’s house.

(Funky rocks near Dani's house)

(A panoramic view of the little beach just below Dani's)

Today we got up, bid farewell to everyone and drove home. The sea is calm and I don’t think there’s been a surfable wave anywhere in the Bay (maybe smwhere in France?). Anyway, we didn’t see any at the several places we checked.

(The first beach in the Bay we came accross: flat)

(A swell magnet closer to home: way too small)

Tomorrow I shall post a review of what’s happened in the Bay during our absence.

Over & out.

On the road - thursday - day six

The swell was a little smaller than yesterday but there were a few waves at Pantín. I took the bonzer out for a try: interesting except when it hits the flats. We took some pictures of Pantín and another beach nearby. After the rain of yesterday, and except for a few showers this morning, the weather has been very mild and sunny.

(Pantín this am)

(A panoramic view of the beach of Pantín)

(The beach at Valdoviño. Lunch time and no one on the whole beach -4.5ks of it-)

On the road – wednesday – day five

The swell dropped a little bit today: 2-3’ with the occasional 4’ set, and the wind (side / offshore) was a bit too strong. My surf didn’t go very well at Pantín, as I timed it wrong and the tide got too full too soon.

We checked a beach nearby, but it wasn’t quite working. No crowds though.


There was a bar nearby with a very inspiring name: horizon!

And then it started raining… cats and dogs. We spent most of the afternoon at Dani’s place, by the cliff.


We enjoyed amazing views and nice walks under the rain in the woods with the dogs. It could have been much worse.

Over & out.

On the road – tuesday – day four

Same place… and the swell really picked up this morning. I had a surf in 3-5’ side/off-shore Pantin first thing in the morning. Both the right and the left were working and it got better with the incoming tide. Got my ass kicked by a couple of sets and managed to get a few rights and lefts.

(Pantín, still building up.)

Then we ran some errants, taking some nice pictures here and there.

(I don't think they pray for surf.)

("A cara do mar" - "the face of the sea")

Before lunch, and while my wife had a little surf at another beach, I made a sun shelter for our Scottish Diamond Terrier with the driftwood I found on the beach… except it wouldn’t go anywhere near it.

After lunch I had a surf with Dani, a friend for over 15 years who lives nearby. The surf was small and rip affected (1-2’), but at least we were alone and could have our little yearly surf contest. As usual it was a draw. Now it’s ten o’clock at night, there’s still some daylight left and some 4 or 5 surfers are still enjoying a few waves at the point. We are in the van, thinking about dinner and testing today’s wifi connection. We are expecting good surf again for tomorrow, so we are going to have another early night.

Over & out.

On the road – monday – day three

We still are in the same stretch of coast of Galiza, right a the very NW corner of Spain and just outside the Bay. There was very little swell this morning, and when there isn’t much swell here you don’t need to go anywhere else as this is one of the –if not “the”- most consistent coastlines in Southern Europe.

This graffiti has been on the wall of an old building by one of the prettiest beaches of the area for the last couple of years. I’ve seen it several times and I am still wondering if the message was left by a local (there aren’t many around here) or by a visitor who didn’t get his share.

We had a nice surf right after lunch, just the two of us: although it was small, there wasn’t any wind and the sun was out. Later on the swell built up but also did the crowds and the cloud cover. We believe we got the best deal.

Over & out.

On the road – sunday – day two

We woke up to more or less the same situation we went to bed to last night: dark skies and some onshore windswell. We drove west, checking a few exposed beaches in this corner full of fjords. Not much surf anywhere.

(One of the beaches we checked. Too small.)

(The entrance of one of the fjords, called rías in this part of the world.)

On one beach we found an odd mix of objects that definitely don’t belong to any beach: a pc screen, a toilet brush… We couldn’t help to arrange them in an office kind-of-way. It could be funny if it weren’t so sad… After we took the photo, we took them to the garbage containers by the road.

(No comment.)

After lunch we arrived to Pantin, the site of one of the oldest WQS contests in Europe every September. The waves were tiny and the rip outrageous, but I managed to get a few. Later we had a walk around the headland, checking some amazing cliffs, before dining at some friends.

(Pantín seen from the cliff. High tide.)

(Galiza, the region where we are, has lots of megalithic stones and dolmens, although this one we found is much more recent.)

(Another beach near Pantín.)

The swell is supposed to fill in tomorrow afternoon.

Over & out.

Weekend and the start of this week – on & off

Weekend in London was fine, thank you. Saw two surfers in Gatwick escaping from London, board in hand, on Sunday. Not one of them flew to Bilbao with us. Back at home Friday was unsurfable, Saturday kind of biggish and windy from the W and Sunday more manageable but with very strong offshores (S) with a late change to NW.

Managed to get two surfs: Monday late afternoon (2-3' and semi onshore) and Tuesday (today - 1' glassy, with perfect see through crystal clear water) before work. Not the best of conditions, but still fun. Spring is time for windswells and semi strong N-NE winds. And so far for a lot of rain.

I’m having a meeting tomorrow with the organizers of the Surfilm Festibal to talk about the blogs (Spanish & English). Look forward to this new project. The new 3sesenta magazine, oldest Spanish surfing magazine, has arrived (see the cover on the right hand side column, #127). It's the Big Waves special issue (and the biggest issue so far). I'm very happy with the lay out they've done of my writing. Looks cool. It's the last piece i've written for them so far, as i'm taking a couple of issues off to focus on other projects, but i'll be back.

Forecast: Wednesday flat as a pond…cake, Thursday and Friday big from the West with on-shores, classic Saturday (on the big side) and Sunday (smaller).

Here’s a mix of the pictures of what I’ve found on the net (and a couple from yours truly) from these past days.

Saturday morning. Photo from near A Coruña by Fiz_Bertels. Yes, outside the Bay.

Two great photos from Sunday morning in Zarautz (20kms from home, deep inside the Bay). Pacotwo is a freelance photographer who works a lot with Surfer Rule, the other Spanish mag.

Monday morning, in Pantin (site of a WQS contest every September), around the W corner of the Bay. Photo by Dani.

Yesterday's (Monday) sunset at home. Taken by my wife while i was getting changed.

This morning at home. The sun wasn't totally out yet, and it was freezing (6ºC in the parking). As it was low tide, we were surfing over to the left side of the beach. The longboarder of the photo kept getting the best waves until he left. That is NOT a set.

Over & out.