When I consider surf destinations I always think of the dreamy places, like the perfect waves of the Maldives, the dreamy set-ups of the Mentawais, the quiet areas near the Bukit Peninsula, The Telos Islands, and all those warm water perfection destinations that we see in the mags and we dream about. In all my years of surfing I have never really ever had a big desire to go and visit Portugal.
Yet there it is, an absolute powerhouse of professional surfing. It is now one of the most important stops for the sport, across so many channels. It has become more important that France, more important than South Africa, and more important than Tahiti and Fiji. Let’s have a look why.
The WQS has the Santa Cruz Pro 1,000 at Praia do Fisica, Santa Cruz, a Men’s and Women’s event, Azores Airlines Pro 6,000 Sao Miquel, Azores, and the Billabong Pro Cascais, currently underway. With only five WQS 10,000 contest on around the world, each one of them become invaluable, and the other vital route to qualification is through the 6,000 events. Portugal has one of each, making it crucial for a prospective qualifier.
On the Women’s Championship Tour it has a crucial event in the Cascais Women’s Pro. It is an event that could crown a title champion and that almost happened today. By being in the position of being able to crown a world champion, it has the possibility of receiving the lion’s share of media exposure through that crowning, incredibly valuable marketing for the nation’s tourism. As it happened, the Cascais Women’s Pro was won by Courtney Conlogue claiming back-to-back win for this event, with Championship Tour Yellow Jersey surfer Tyler Wright in second, so the world title race will go on to France and the Roxy Pro next month.
There was the Caparica Junior Pro 1,000 Men and Women, the Junior Pro Espinho 1,000 Men and Women, and there’s even the Longboard Pro Vieux Boucau.
It has the Men’s Championship Tour Meo Rip Curl Pro in the Peniche region. This event too has the chance of crowning a world champion, and there could be some very major movements for the title run this year, but it is also the site of so many interesting situations that have happened in our sport.
Remember when Parko got a slap from a bodyboarder there?
Or when Medina started crying on stage and walked away from the prize giving when Julian won?
What about when Kelly Slater did a 720 turn in Portugal as well, do you remember that?
Then there was the crazy performance from Filipe Toledo last year to win the event with surfing like this.
Finally you get the biggest rideable wave in the world now hosting a big wave contest as part of the World Surf League Big Wave Tour at Nazaré. It’s going to be a challenge to organize that event – the first big wave event at the location – but what cannot be denied is that the waves get really, really, really big there.
Put it all together and Portugal is suddenly a very important destination for professional surfing. It has the opportunity to make Championship Tour careers out of Qualifying Series hopefuls, it can crown world champions, and it sees surfers ride the biggest waves in the world. These are some of the most important happenings in our sport.