Surfing Portugal in summer, and beating the nortada

Summer, June to August, is the gentlest surf of the year and the time almost everyone learns. The water is 18 to 20 degrees, a 3/2 or even a shorty, the beach breaks are soft, and every school and camp is at capacity. The catch is the nortada: a strong, dry north wind that sets in most afternoons and turns the exposed west coast into chop and closeouts by lunchtime.

Working around the wind

Surf at dawn. The wind is usually light until mid-morning, so first light to about 10am is the clean window, every day, all summer. This is the single most useful habit for a summer trip.

Pick a sheltered spot. Costa da Caparica, south of Lisbon, sits at an angle that the nortada blows offshore or cross-off, so it can stay clean in the afternoon when everywhere to the north is destroyed. Some south-facing corners of bays behave the same way.

Go to the Algarve. The south coast faces away from the nortada entirely. It is smaller and less consistent, but on a summer afternoon when the west coast is unsurfable, Lagos, Sagres and the central Algarve beaches are often glassy. The far southwest around Sagres also picks up more swell than the rest of the south.

Who summer suits

Beginners and improvers, families, and anyone travelling with non-surfers. If you want size and power, summer is the wrong season and you should look at autumn.

Practical notes

Book camps and lessons weeks ahead for July and August. Beaches and car parks fill by mid-morning. The upside of the nortada is that the afternoons are made for the beach, and for kite and windsurf at Guincho, Foz do Arelho and the Algarve lagoons, which come alive exactly when the surf shuts down.