Day 7 (Tuesday, October 5, 2021)
Costs for the Day are in the Table below:
I previously booked a Beach Transfer for 25 EUR with a surf shop/school called Jah Shaka (see Day 4) which outsources the surf school to Tiny Whale. They pick you up from the surf shop at 8:50AM, surf all morning, provide lunch, and then drive you back in the afternoon so you arrive back at the surf shop around 2:30-2:45pm. Last night I prepared my surf board – the wax had melted so I scraped it off and added some more and also put the fins back in since I had removed them for travel. I also packed up my wetsuit, towel, and surf poncho along with an apple and some water.
I woke up at 7am, cooked breakfast of eggs and toast and had a coffee. Then I grabbed my gear and headed over to the surf shop which is only just around the corner.
The surf group was very friendly and I was put in a van with Christian and Lucy. The surf instructor was Elena and the surf photographer/driver was Ezekial (Eze for short). Both Christian and Lucy were visiting on holiday from Germany and were taking surf lessons. I was the only one that was just doing a Beach Transfer without a lesson. Eze was from Argentina and Elena was Swedish. Everyone spoke English which was nice for me. Most of them had travelled and lived in many places in the world and spoke multiple languages.
In about 35 minutes, we arrived at Praia do Castelejo which is a long beach with rocks at either end and a group of rocks a little to the left of center.
According to Surfline and Magic Seaweed (see details above and www.magicseaweed.com / www.surfline.com), the waves were 1.3-2.1 meters (roughly 4.5-7 feet).
The sand banks shift around quite a bit so the waves were inconsistent and the conditions were overall messy. Apparently, it is good on small to medium sized waves but generates a lot of close out waves on larger days.
There is a rip in the middle and also on the right hand side right next to the rocks. I first tried to paddle out through the middle section but kept getting pounded by the waves. Eventually, I came back in to try another spot. One of the surf instructors said I should go out along the rocks on the right hand side. She said not to worry and that it would not sweep me into the rocks. It was good advice and I had a much easier time paddling out that way.
However, I had a hell of a time catching much since the water was very choppy and the waves would break in different locations and also sometimes more inside and other times far outside. The water was fairly cold and after a couple hours I found my 3/2 wetsuit (3mm in the chest and legs and 2mm on the arms) wasn’t enough to keep me from shivering. So, I headed back in without having caught anything decent which is something I hate to do. However, it was good to warm up a little, eat lunch on the beach and rehydrate.
After I had regained my strength, I headed back out for a second round. The waves seemed a little bit better and some other surfers also came out and started catching a few which helped give me some encouragement. Finally, I caught an excellent right hander that took me all the way into the beach. When I got out, I noticed my foot pad had come loose and was only hanging on by about 1/3 of the pad. So, I’ll have to get that fixed but I was happy to have at least caught one good wave on my first day out having not surfed for about 10 months. I’ll consider that a win.
