Surfing Waves

Next weekend , Jaffa, son of Jaffa and Grandson of Jaffa, hit our first major European surfari.
Drive, Austria, Germany to France, Aquitane Coast thence to Asturias in Spain then down the Portugese coast to,Baleal again.
Camera gear ready, son of Jaffa has recovered his Surfing Waves Identity and may report on the shenanigans too. I will encourage him to shoot his father if I am surfing well.
If there is a big Nazare surf I hope to shoot that,.

A good surf session , means a lot to me in how I see my body‘s recovery.
BTW the river surf is still flat so no preparation there, it is still severely counter counter intuitive,

Since we are driving my preferred boards go

Endless Summer 3!

Good luck Jaffa, and ehh.. Pelan pelan!

Enjoy, and good luck!

I still hope for a good day in Netherlands. So far the weather is still way to much like summer for that.

Enjoy and keep us posted.

We drive Austria, Germany , France then Spain toll motorways to first night near Nevers, great Air BnB in France
We cross the border to our first planned surfing landfall , Rodiles in Middle of north coast of Spain.
The whole Iberian penisula is getting the beginning storms of Hurricane Oscar, Bay of Biscay rough as guts, Rodiles a river mouth is channeling flood waters and mountain snow falls with howling on shore!
Washing machine heavy duty work clothes cycle and water colour , swamp and sewerage flavour.


No antibiotics available and just too messy, so no surfing
We stayed the night and as we left we saw the snow dump of our arrival day and that night.
Fortunately Austria, German and France require snow tyres from the first of November which we had put on.
The Spanish Garcia inspected our car and we were allowed to cross the Alpine passes.


Roadside trees were often Australian eucalypts so it was deja vu again


A coast run from Porto to Baleal, Nazare is not firing yet but the full coast is being hit by severe heavy rain storms washing machine swell and is just plain out of control!


A couple of water entries for offshore sheltered surf only to be thwarted by sharp 180 degree wind changes one of which threw a Cafe roof and verandah at us at high speed, Not at all welcoming
Power line and overhead internet cables have been down since before we arrived,
The WSL competition site was being dismantled by both workmen and the wind, and had to be chase for pick up down the beach at Supertubos.

Forget you should have been here yesterday , we need to be here tomorrow! MAYBE!

sounds like...fun. Hitting 31C at Merimbula by the end of the week, should have stayed in NSW

The last photo is Lagide. I've surfed that break many times!

It looks really shallow for a long way out - is that the case? Flat and wide beaches make for ‘interesting’ paddles out in bigger surf

We are based in Lagide, there are quite a few fingers of tilted rock layers that underpin the sand which goes a long way out. Some fingers have convenient rips as express getter outerers !

Spent time today, as it has actually stopped raining, teach our youngest surfers how to read and use rips and plan escape route, + he caught his first green wave and made his first bottom turn on a reform.

All good surf is much better and off shore today so a Jaffa surf is in order

At 4:53, this is me surfing Lagide. The rip that day was brutal and the swell got bigger and bigger. At the end I had difficulty come back in. The paddle was brutal and the lineup was so far out. I originally paddle to the famous Lagide reef (for locals only) but the rip was so strong it took me 100 hundred meters away. Back then I was a real kook, I was 1 year into surfing and going out in days that was way over my head. However when I look at the videos now, I think I surfed much better than I do now. Probably due to age + spending much less time in water.

BaNZ wrote:. Back then I was a real kook, I was 1 year into surfing and going out in days that was way over my head.

that's really good for 1 year in. How often were you going out that first year?

pmcaero wrote:that's really good for 1 year in. How often were you going out that first year?

First year I was doing every Sat + Sun, between 2-4 hours session. It doesn't matter if it was thunder, rain or storm, I was out there and very lucky that I didn't drown myself.

I just checked the dates again. It was exactly 1 year and 8 months. After first year I didn't surf much due to relocation. But when I do go surf, I take 1-2 weeks off just to surf. Surfing every single day does help a lot. It takes me about 5-6 days of surf sessions to get back to where I last left off. I find that surfing only the weekends doesn't help me progress as much.

BaNZ wrote:First year I was doing every Sat + Sun, between 2-4 hours session. It doesn't matter if it was thunder, rain or storm, I was out there and very lucky that I didn't drown myself.

very impressive. you were able to go down the line and turn effectively on several waves, and the others were closeouts anyway

pmcaero wrote:
very impressive. you were able to go down the line and turn effectively on several waves, and the others were closeouts anyway

Thanks! I always tell my friends it's due to the Torq surfboard. I had a Southpoint bonga mk2 as my first board and I was catching less than 1 wave each session for the first 3 months. It was super frustrating but I was having fun. I broke that board on a shore dump and bought a longboard Torq. First day out and I caught over 10 waves.

Unfortunately if I show you videos of my surf now, you will think that I haven't improved at all for the last 4 years lol. I can only surf well in clean glassy conditions and I lost the motivation on going out in rough conditions.

Just curious how do you catch less than one wave per session ?
Note to PM BaNZ did well at the early stage he was at then!

Sadly PM the waves at the wall are not helping you advance much at all, not power no real shape and from you still very little foot movement, , I applaud your dedication , but you should be rewarded with much more skills, I check your blog regularly, would love to see you surfing as well you deserve

jaffa1949 wrote:J I applaud your dedication , but you should be rewarded with much more skills, I check your blog regularly, would love to see you surfing as well you deserve

I have a much better board now, a Torq 8'6". Still learning to use it as it is my first longboard, but seems a lot more maneuverable than the plastic Bic.

It is also bigger and more suited for mushy waves - another reason I got it.

Also, I will check out my other break, Jenness, more often. It is slightly farther away but as it has better tidal range than The Wall and some steeper sections.

Wasn’t too bad today 1.

Definitely wasn’t.

Even the beginners had clean fun.

Nice, where ist that?

We are considering Portuagl for Easter next year.