Island Time / Season End

I was kinda hoping for the Islands to crank up again but wasn´t sure if it´s gonna happen. But as the swell season started late, it´s more than likely that we still get some proper long period swells in April.

I didn´t think too much of that swell, cause I was just super spoiled of weeks of good surf in Portugal and had a pretty bad neck for over a week after two nice wipeouts in Nazare. For longer I was keen to go with Tony Butt an das he wrote me about that forecast we decided spontaneously to go. Winds ended up being a bit worse than expected which limited the choice of spots a bit but we still had some super fun waves and one chunky day along. Learning more about swells and surf-related topics from the guru as well as his enviromental projects was really interesting and inspiring. I hope we have some more trips, especially tot hat magic island, which is unlike anywhere else.

Weeks of Beachies in Portugal

When medium sized Swells with a good period meet light easterly winds for 2 weeks straight you know where to go on the iberian peninsula. Well, almost, because if you wanna surf one of thousands of beachies in Portugal you got to know the banks. Anyway, since I had some good ones there recently i was hoping that the banks are still there and fuck, they were! Besides the hollow right I had one heavy big left on a 3m 18 sec. swell to myself – a swell where you usually dont surf anywhere with sand. The current was so strong that I was holding on to a bouy, that the fishermen put way out the back, but this is where the biggest sets were breaking. Pretty amazing feeling I must say.

Then there was a real fun few days with the Basque crew Rafa & Txaber, that were around a few days and Phillip Strauss, a (Ex) Pro Snowboarder from Munich who is much into Surfing now. Super fun days and Nazare showed us some beautiful Aframes even at just 4-6 pretty heavy. To cruise more than a week with Eva was real fun, this time we didn´t move around too much and just enjoyed the Beach, waves, food and Time.

Munich Visit

Finally I could show Eva around a bit in Munich and Bavaria. Having seen plenty of places in Spain and many trips to Madrid by now I was always keen to bring her to my home. And like Munich is in Winter we´ve had some pretty cold days, although it behaved better than expected. Catching up with family and friends after months without them is great and you actually appreciate everything more.

Besides Munich we did Neuschwanstein, which seems to be way more popular with tourists than Bavarians (not surprising) but hardly anyone I know from Munich has ever been there. Well, it´s pretty and has an amazing vibe but of course plenty of people from all over the place. Concentration Camp Dachau was another thing not many Munich people bother to do: it´s definitly not the happiest place and has a depressing vibe and history but good to see the madness that went down there to be a lesson for everyone.

Now back to Madrid and off to Portugal...

Island Time / biggest swell of the year

Pais Vasco always had some positive surprises for me recently and the week at Spain´s most popular spot was nothing short of amazing.

There was a lot of hype around the biggest swell of the season, or like Magicseaweed dubbed it „Mini-Hercules“. Big long period Swell, a big center of 40ft. + Seas plus high tides would mean some potential destruction for European coasts even though it was not gonna be as intense as the famed XXXL Swell on 6.1.2014. Because winds weren´t favourable for pretty much of Europe, there was only a few places to go. Far enough away to get clean, very long period swell without the bad winds – thank god for the Canaries. The days there didn´t dissapoint, although it was expected much, much bigger there. Anyway, two beautiful weeks of „Summer“ while most of Southern Europe got down to minus degrees didn´t feel too bad.

Right now hanging in a Hotel in the main town, full from the buffet and free booze after my flight was cancelled yesterday – so hope to get off the island tomorrow and back to see my girl in Madrid, can´t wait.

Surfpics by Gunnar Grimmer

Patience pays off / Contrasts

For some things in life you got to have patience, with others it´s good to try once and then move on. Some Surfspots are so ridiculously crowded that most times there´s not even worth checking it. One of those spots was now kinda pumping for a week straight and waiting around there paid off this time. To a point that I can´t move properly now, 2 days after that run, because my body is still so exhausted from that whole week of good surf here in Pais Vasco.

Just before I encounterted the Contrast to that, far West where you sometimes don´t see any people for a whole day in the water. It was definitly a great experience, pure raw wild surf, Storms & rain and really fun waves. Without local knowledge of Dr. Tony Butt I probably wouldn´t have found waves, so it was great to catch up with this human encyclopedia about oceans, swells, setups and waves and needless to say he f..n charges.

Madrid New Years & Home "holiday"

After scoring some good waves and fun Xmas vibes in probably my favourite surf-destination in the world I wanted to be back in Madrid for my girl´s birthday and form y first time New Years celebrations in Spain. Besides the tradition of eating 12 grapes at midnight with the ringing of the bell, the Spanish like to celebrate anyway and it was great to stay with the whole family and slide yet into another year full of surprises, surf, love, positive vibes and good times. It seems the more you think positive and the less you care, the better everything goes, it´s pretty cool.

Anyways, I flew to Munich to see my family and friends after 3 months of not seeing everyone and went to ISPO tradeshow for a day. Great to catch with everyone and I had a sore throat in the evening from talking to so many people. My body seemed to reject the city, as I got serious stomach problems after 2 days from a Pizza, so I couldn´t do much there unfortunately and even the famous ISPO parties weren´t for me.

So, back to Spain and off tot he coast, patterns are looking crazy for weeks...

Xmas Classic

This time it was coincidence that there were some good patterns right around Xmas time at the place where I spent the last 7 or so Xmasses anyhow.

Since there´s not much schedule on the trip I left the Van in a safe place and went tot he magic place once again. It´s always tricky to surf there and you can get totally skunked, or nearly drown the first day or other mishaps, it´s got it all and is very fickle.

However there were moments of absolute glory and it was a all round very fun trip with Robin and of course the local Mami Cecilia. Good times and a very feliz Natal

Beachbreak Madness

Not much caption needed, just one oft he best days I´ve ever seen and surfed on a beachbreak. Great sharing those conditions with shaping legend Manila and the local bodyboard posse.

It´s empty because it was super heavy to get out in the first place and really really punchy, I f...ed up one board, my westuit and my foot in one day but was all worth it J

Portugal Roadtrip

Aah, what a „winter“ when you still have 20+ degrees and cruise around with your lady in the van with no plan. We started off in Oporto, where we checked out some of the city and headed south with visits in some of my favourite beachtowns along the coast including Nazare. This was perfect and probably 20-25ft. always hard to tell when there´s no one out.

Obidos and Lisbon were highlights oft hat short and sweet trip down the coast as well. Portugal´s really got it all, lots of culture & history, good cheap food and drinks, great cities and of course one oft he most spectacular coastlines in the world with everything from mellow beachbreaks to good points tot he mutant Nazare that makes every swell with a long period 100 times bigger.

Epic times with Eva in some of my favourite places in the world...

Farewell PV

After nearly two months with magic conditions in Pais Vasco it was time to head off to new adventures although the farewell wasn´t an easy one. In every aspect I must say that I´m really stoked about my time here, the waves, of course a great run of perfect conditions, food and more than everything the crew here as well.

Every place I went to I got a warm welcome. To be fair, a large part of mainland Europe got one oft he best autumns and winter-starts regarding surf with summer like temps, light winds and beautiful „mid-sized“ swells between 6 and 15 foot.

It´s definitly not my last visit. Thanks heaps to all the crew for sharing waves and advice, to Grant Twiggy Baker for shouting me into the best and maybe biggest wave of my trip and the biggest shoutout to Rafa, the local charger for showing me around and sharing some memorable surfs.