Portugal has a lot of good waves. Outside of the surfing world, it’s known best for Nazaré, which, when it’s doing the things it’s known best for, is not exactly user-friendly. But Supertubos, Carcavelos, and Coxos, just to name a few, are a little more… well, surfable. And Coxos, when it’s good, is about as good as it gets. It’s a little heavier than it looks. Actually, a lot heavier.
A few years back, I was in Portugal for the best surf event (IMHO) in the world. It’s called the Perfect Chapter, and it runs on the best day of the Portuguese winter. Fingers are crossed it’ll run soon, because we’re smack dab in the middle of the waiting period. Like this year, the event ran at Carcavelos, a pristine stretch of sand just outside of Lisbon proper. The wave there, while fickle, is insanely good. After the event ran, I headed to Coxos with Anthony Walsh, Balaram Stack, and Cory Lopez. Balaram headed to the Cave, a square slab across the bay from Coxos. I stayed at Coxos with Corey and Anthony. Long story short, I was out the back, nearly alone, when one of the better waves of the day rolled in. Anthony and Cory were both paddling back out, as was most of the rest of the lineup, and everyone hooted for me.
And guess what I did? I blew the take off. One of the worst feelings in surfing made exponentially worse by the fact that two surfers I’ve admired for most of my life had front row seats to it. I’m sure they don’t remember it, but I sure do. Anyway, I paddled back out and kind of redeemed myself, which was nice… but man, that sucked.
On February 8, Coxos did its thing. The conditions weren’t quite good enough to run the Perfect Chapter, but they were pretty damn good. The YouTube channel Surf Raw Files posted this action. An 18-second northwest swell pumping out 8-10 foot waves, groomed by a stiff offshore made for conditions that were, in a few words, very nearly perfect.
