“Which stop on tour did you look forward to visting the most because of the food?,” I ask former World Champ Joel Parkinson as we stand at the counter of Toca do Texugo, a quaint and homely fish restaurant nestled in the heart of Peniche, waiting to choose what fresh delicacy we’d like cooked on the grill.
“Portugal for sure, the seafood here is next level. There is nothing better than getting barrelled for a couple hours and then sitting down and tucking into some of the freshest fish you’ll ever have,” Parko replied.
That day, we put Parko’s theory to the test and funnily enough, he was right.
Having been in Portugal for the Capitulo Perfeito contest, I’d been invited by the organisers and Visit Portugal to hang out for the week with some of the surfers from the event and check out the local sights and waves on offer.
On this particular morning, we loaded the van and headed to Supertubos. Turning up to Portgal’s premier beach break when there’s a three metre swell in the water with a heavyweight crew of Joel Parkinson, Craig Anderson, Balaram Stack and Victor Bernardo is a surreal and exciting feeling.
The group was an incredible mix of different types of surfing pedigree and styles. You’ve got Parko’s countless world tour wins, Ando’s timeless style, Balaram’s go for broke attitude and Victor’s flare on alternative equipment. It was a unique concoction of surfing personalities, perfectly crafted by the Capitulo crew to create a rare opportunity to see their abilities work in harmony in pumping beach break barrels.
Upon arrival at the beach, there was hardly a soul in sight. I know the Europeans like to sleep in a little more than the Aussies but it was almost 10am. The reason for the small attendance was the morning conditions. Eight to ten foot tubes, with few exits, detonated across the lineup with a cross-shore breeze and a lot of water moving which made for a wild outlook. However, on days like this it’s the ability to find the diamonds in the rough that separates these surfers from the rest.
After two hours the crew managed to snag a few in between dodging the rogue clean up sets which had no clear entry or exit. Unfortunately, the morning session had been more about the survival of the fittest rather than an all-out tube fest. However, the calories burnt from the endless paddling against the rip warranted a big lunch time feed.
With the help of Andre, our photographer and guide for the day, we visited Toca do Texugo to get a taste of what the locals eat. This consisted of fresh seafood, caught that morning, cooked with limited spices or sauces but grilled to perfection. Wash it down with a glass of Portuguese red, if that’s your thing, or in our case, an espresso and you’re ready to go for surf number two.
The afternoon session was much more fruitful. The swell had dropped a touch making conditions more manageable, the wind had swung offshore and a dropping tide created the cone shaped tubes that the wave had built its name on.
“Fuck, it’s absolutely pumping now hey,” says Parko as he paddles past me grinning like a Cheshire cat having done a run around after getting coned twice on one wave. Despite calling time on his full time competitive career a number of years ago, in the week I spent with Joel I found that he’s still got that spark for surfing. He might not be bothered about competing, but he still loses his mind at the sight of pumping waves and acts like a kid at Christmas. It’s an infectious attitude that rubs off on everyone around him.
After snagging a couple of waves for myself, I decide to get out and watch on for the rest of the session to admire the masters of their craft.
Backlit by the Portuguese winter sun, freight train lefts continue to march in and while the majority of the lineup sit slightly further on the shoulder, Balaram and Craig position themselves as deep as possible. You can see why Bal is a former Pipe Master with his gangster-like full send attitude. During that session he made a number of barrels, but he was still kicking himself when he came out the water.
“I got a couple, but I blew it on the wave of the day. I wish I had known I was going to disconnect when going down the face of that one, I would’ve just airdropped instead,” he tells me.
Despite that, Bal and everyone else came away from the surf satisfied and we rounded off a day at the beach with some post session stories and a couple road beers on route back to our hotel.
As if the day couldn’t get any better, the Capitulo crew and the staff at Areias Do Seixo, where we were staying, had prepared us the most incredible fine dining meal, which had my taste buds dancing with every bite. We had been spoilt, Portugal had really put on a show for us, delivering on all it had to offer.
