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.

On the road – saturday – day one

I could say that we left at the crack of dawn, but I’d be lying… We left in the afternoon, after spending the whole morning trying to get everything organized and making sure we were leaving behind as few things as possible (we still forgot some stuff). Finally we drove westwards; our destination is the far NW corner of Spain, Galicia, and the most westerly tip of this part of Europe: Fisterra. Way outside the bay and one of the most consistent places in Southern Europe, which suits us as the forecast looks grim.

The waves at home were crappy - small and onshore-, and so was the weather (we got rain during most of the journey). But still near Bilbao we had some amazing views of the clouds and the mist eating whole mountains.


Three hours into the drive, we stopped at a semi swell magnet. Not only it was small, but also ugly and with chocolate coloured water.


At least the rain brings nice green colours near some very funky rocks.


Three hours later we arrived where we are planning to spend the night.


We've been here before and it’s a nice beach. There is some sort of N windswell (onshore) and although it looks horrible right now, we might score some clean little waves early tomorrow morning.


We still are on the N facing coast of Spain, but very close to the NW corner. The ground is very wet and the place very quiet… except for Buffy, the red-eye-monster and the only non surfing member of the expedition, who decided to dig a hole in the mud. Some attitude readjustment was required.

Over & out.