Chasing Portugal: “Biggest Waves of my Life!”

The North Atlantic's been on a bit of a tear recently. Many, many swells firing out of that big blue, straight into Western Europe. One of those weeks where for London Almida, everywhere was looking good – except for on his Peniche doorstep.

In this latest episode of Chasing Portugal, your series protagonist, London, had been thinking about where to hit on this mid-January swell when the phone buzzed. 

“Mikel [Aguirre] hit me up and said about coming up to northern Spain to surf with him and the crew that way,” said London. A magic phone call, inviting you to a wave that's been on your mind for a while is a hard prospect to turn down.

So, a few hours later, London had packed the car and was on the eight-hour road trip, travelling through the night to get to the spot as the swell arrived at first light.

“We managed a few hours sleep in the car,” he said. “But then it was pretty much straight into this crazy session. And you know, it's always hard leaving Portugal. We have such good and consistent surf, usually whenever it's gonna be good somewhere else, it means missing out on good waves at home. In this case, it was a super rainy and stormy week and I knew we wouldn't miss anything here – so we chanced it.”

And then, London saw the swell at first light. “It was definitely quite a surprise how big it was, I was under the impression originally that we would be surfing another spot and was totally unprepared to surf the heavy bumpy left we ended up going out at.”

For the local crew, this was the biggest swell of the season so far. “We had three days of swell and we took out the guns and skis for the first time this season,” said Mikel.

“The first two days were fine for paddling but the last day was tow only. It was a session of constant sets, but the sea was not as clean as  expected. It made navigating the lineup pretty tricky.”

Two teams were in the water, Xabi Lopez and Mikel along with Kevin Pyarbide and Dani Pablos. They were joined by other young locals, Dani Hulme and Joseba Berasategi. Even with the skis in the channel, there was a sketchy moment for Andoni Ostolaza who had his 'worst experience in his life' thanks to a two wave hold down. 

“Even with the strong wind though, and that happening, we were able to surf it for about four hours,” said Mikel.

“Think the interesting thing for me was towing the left,” said London. “At Nazaré we have the option of picking left or right, and me being regular I normally choose rights. Was definitely a challenging experience physically towing in backside for a couple hours straight as it puts more strain on your legs and lower body.

“Surfing with the crew from the Basque country was amazing. They are a very kind and simple people, super dedicated to their art and definitely some of the heaviest chargers in Europe. Was amazing to get pushed into some bombs by Mikel Aguirre. He's a real legend, charges and was an amazing host. Definitely caught some of the biggest waves of my life.”

Stay tuned for the next episode, dropping soon.