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I’m just back from a long-weekend in Algarve, Portugal. I went together with my girlfriend (who doesn’t surf unless the water is tropical…), so it wasn’t a surf trip . But I did get some surf everyday.

The first 2 days I surfed at Praia do Amado, a beach break just south of Carrapateira. Nothing special when I was there - probably because the swell was pretty small.
I was suprised how empty the line-up was though - on Saturday morning I had a decent wave all for myself, from 10 am to around noon.

On Sunday morning I called Rene at Atlantic Riders, one of the top rated camps on glissers. The surfcamp is located on the west coast of Algarve, with close access to tons of good breaks. He took me (and the rest of his guests) to a secret spot - a big, beautiful, and empty beach, with a gentle wave. We stayed there all day, and I even managed to convince my girlfriend to join us at the beach - it was that nice! I can’t tell you where it is though - Rene would hunt me down and kill me if I did.

We went to the same beach the day after. In the last day we drove to Amoreira , a bit further north. The morning surf was lame, but in the afternoon the swell picked-up, and period increased, and I had some brilliant waves.

All in all Algarve was better than I excepted. Great food and wine, pretty cheap, wild and beautiful nature, and tons of excellent longboardig waves. I’ll be back for sure, but next time I’ll stay with Atlantic Riders - those guys know the area and are chilled-out and friendly = recommended camp.