By Chris Burton
Bodyboard-Holidays run a series of trips to Portugal throughout the year and for good reason, time after time Portugal serves up the goods and our most recent mid-summer trip was no exception.
The week-long August trip went off in style with fantastic waves, warm sea temps, super fun bodyboarding conditions, and lazy evening sunset drinks with the gang.
Accommodation
We have some of the nicest accommodation of any of our trips down in Portugal where the guests enjoy a massive luxury mansion nestled among the peaceful pine trees in the Serra de Sintra National Park. With a huge dining room, wifi throughout, games room with pool table and a large lounge area, the villa really is the perfect place to hang out after a full day of bodyboarding. It’s also in walking distance from the vibrant village of Praia das Macas, which has a variety of shops, grocery stores, bakery, pizzeria, bars, pharmacy and a choice of restaurants serving typically delicious Portuguese dishes.
Instructors
Having instructors that are local to the area means they know the area like the back of their hands. This is a massive bonus as not only were they there to give expert advice for body-board improvements but also to ensure that everyone in the group with varying abilities are catered for. All of our instructors have been bodyboarding for their whole lives and have traveled the world in pursuit of perfect surf. Our main man down in Portugal Matt ‘Mave’ Davies has been a long-standing trip leader for Bodyboard-Holidays and can teach you whatever you wish to know about the sport. He is also a dab hand at the old drop knee stance so if you’re looking to improve your DK or try it for the first time he’s definitely the man for the job.
Location
Being situated in the Sintra region of central Portugal means that you are never too far away from some of the best bodyboarding waves in Europe plus the area also benefits from the Serra de Sintra National Park, a coastal mountain wilderness alive with colorful flora and fauna, ancient crumbling castles and churches, and stunning panoramic sea views.
Waves
Just north of our base, Praia do Norte Nazare is world-famous for its massive, I mean massive waves, but that isn’t really what we’re after at Bodyboard-Holidays. When it’s not 20 foot but more like 2-4 foot this beach break is about as close to bodyboarding perfec-tion as you can get.
Closer to home is the equally-famous Portuguese Pipeline, Supertubos. Located at Peniche, this aptly-named break delivers super tubes (not surprisingly), breaking fast and hollow over a perfect sandbank.
Sintra is one of the most amazing stretches on the coast north of Lisbon, the beautiful re-gion of Sintra has a plethora of epic beach breaks, bordered by Ericeira’s famed reefs to the north, and Lisbon’s popular beaches to the south, such as Carcavelos. It’s fair to say that this stretch of coastline that we visit is absolutely littered with some of the best body-boarding waves you are likely to find anywhere in the whole of Europe.
Check out this great little clip from our newest member of the videography team; Luis ‘Ben’ Coelho’ to get a small insight into some of the action that went down.