Daily Wave Report From Trip To Portugal

We got to the camp site around 17:30 and by 18:15 we were in the water.

Place: Plaia Grande, Sintra

time : 18:15 - 20:15 (sun set at 20:30)

Size : The biggest were 2x overhead.

Crowds : 20 People on the peak until 19:20, then there were about 35 - too crowded.

Conditions : Perfect glass. I'm told that the wind here is always offshore or no wind at all. Today, no wind. The waves were mostly lefts, 50% closed out. I surfed the south peak, nobody was surfing the north peak.

It took me 40 min. just to catch a wave because I hesitated alot (It was the first time that I surfed big ocean (not Med.) waves. After I caught my first wave, I started catching alot.

After getting out of the water I saw a guy catch a perfect stand up barrel . He made it out but then wiped out trying to get into another barrel on the same waves.


4/9/99

The swell grew overnight I was out of my league.

Time : 9:45am - 13:00am

Size : 2.5x overhead +

Crowds : Didn't look too bad (from the beach).

Conditions : Strong side/offshore (SE) wind. BIG and HEAVY shorebreak + no channel made it impossible for me to make it out. I saw only 1 longboarder make it out to the break. I tried 3 times and each time I got hammered back to the beach after paddling non stop for 20-30 minutes.

Second session 4/9/99

We woke up from our afternoon nap just intime to surf for about an hour, so we ran to the beach and saw that the surf had dropped (to my delight).

Time : 19:30 - 20:30

Size : 1.5x overhead

Crowds : 15 people surfing 2 peaks.

Conditions : Good long lefts. SUPER GLASSY! No wind. The paddle out was easy and the session was great.


5/9/99

Morning Session :

Time : 7:30am - 8:40am

Size : Head High ++

Crowds : 4-6 surfers. Not crowded.

Conditions : Offshore wind, long lefts and good rights too. The north peak was closed out and breaking in 2 feet of water.

Durring the day :

Side shore wind (SE). Until 12:30 the north peak had heavy barrels (the ones in the pictures) but they eventualy closed out when the tide changed.

Evening Session :

Time : 7:20 - 7:40 (Only 20 minutes because it was my heat in the contest).

Size : Head high +

Crowds : None, only me at the other 3 competitors.

Conditions : Long lefts breaking on the south peak. No wind - glassy. I caught 3 long lefts with multiple off the lips and cutbacks. I also caught some nice rights.



6/9/99

Durring the day :

Chest to shoulder high all day. On/sideshore wind (NNW). Very bad conditions - closed out waves.

Evening session :

CLASSIC!!!

Time : 18:30 - 20:15

Size : Shoulder high

Crowds : Crowded (30-40 surfers).

Conditions : No wind - glassy and the south peak was peeling both left and right.


7/9/99

Morning session:

Time : 7:20-8:00

Size : Small. Waist - Chest high

Crowds : None. 5-8 surfers

Conditions : Offshore wind but very choppy waves. The tide was low and the waves were closed out.

Evening Session :

Time : 18:40 -19:30

Size : Small. Waist - Chest high

Crowds : Not to bad. 10-15 surfers

Conditions : Sideshore ( N) wind made the waves choppy. They were also closed out because of the bad tide conditions. Thats why the session was so short, it was no fun.


8/9/99

All day :

Small waves (Waist to chest high) that were never realy good. Even in the evening there was no glass off and the onshore wind (NW) made the ocean a choppy mess.

Evening session :

Time :18:20 - 19:40

Size : Shoulder high

Crowds : 30 + surfers. Crowded.

Conditions : Glassy, No wind. good lefts and rights. Nice long walls and some barrels in the shorebreak.


9/9/99
Low tide made the waves terrible closeouts. Once the tide came up the waves got much better.
Time : 15:00 - 17:00

Size : Waist - Chest high

Crowds : Super crowded, also, there were alot of longboards (at least 20).

Conditions : Slight offshore wind made the waves clean. The waves were breaking mostly on the north peak, they were mushy until the tide started going out, then they started walling up and eventualy they started barreling.


10/9/99

The swell came up today but unfortunatly the wind conditions were horrible. The low tide made the waves break in very shallow water and they were closed out. At high tide the waves were broke alittle bigger and they were open lefts and rights. The wind was a strong side shore (S) that chopped the waves to bits.