France/Spain/Morocco/Portugal

[marcus_h]

Want to do this next year, what's the best time to go so that I'll score a few waves?

[murrum]

Did the month of November in Portugal in 94. Constant solid swell pretty much the whole time, water was fine (3/2 steamer). If you can, allow some time to hit up some of Portugals island territories.

[puurri]

ask Longinus.

[yowie1000]

I surfed portugal in dec/jan 2008

loads of swell around, lots of good setups too. had a great trip, my fave was the south-east corner, around sagres, luz, arrifana etc.

one of my mates stayed on after i left and surfed morocco too, and said he got better waves in morocco compared to portugal.

i surfed in a 3/2 and was fine. weather was good with cold nights and pleasant days. plenty of swell so pack the bigger sticks too.

[Squidlips]

The first 2 weeks of October every year.

The low pressure systems in the north atlanic start tracking southwards and producing quality swell from Sept onwards. These swells hit the west coasts of UK, France, North Spain, Portugal, Morrocco and Canary Islands.

You can set your watch that the first 2 weeks of October will produce non stop quality surf.
I used to book these 2 weeks off work every year for about 5 years to hit west coast UK, or Hossegor - france and score some epic sessions.

I had one fortnight in france that didnt drop below solid 5ft (averaging 7 ft+ at vvf's) every day, with some insane 10ft days at some of the hossegor breaks.

The weather is Ok at this time of year too, boardies and tshirt during the day, and a sweater will keep you warm outside in the evening. Its Normally sunny but with scattered showers assoc with LP systems.

If I was doing it as an aussie flying over, my advice would be buy a cheap van from a pommie car auction (with no MOT(roadworthy) - but in good cond) this will set you back at the most $1k. Talbot Express vans go REAL cheap and use peugeot parts so will be cheap if you need parts on your travels.

[purple pyramids]

someone posted a link here a couple of weeks ago to a online mag with mostly shots of morrocco. looked good, very good.