Porto surfing in September – Notes from the locals

Planning on a trip to Porto surfing in September? You think conditions are any good then?  Well the people who read our blogs on a regular base, will know we mentioned before that this is one of our favorite months and we even released the article: 10 reasons to surf in Portugal September October  about why we think that. This year’s “September surfing” exceeded all of our expectations! Maybe except for the fog…

Yep, we had some days with both morning and late afternoon fog. And even a couple of them where the fog continued to stay for the entire day. Spooky! Guess the differences between the temperature of the water and the air close to it explains that. But we’ll skip that for now. It wasn’t the entire month like that, but for sure way more than we had seen from previous years! The other weather conditions were quite good. Some windy days came up early September, still with some good weather though.

Porto surfing in September

Let’s dive right into it! Surfing happened mostly between the Espinho and Esmoriz area, with more sessions happening in Espinho especially when conditions were less clean.

There’s an old saying that goes something like “After the storm comes the quietness”. Couldn’t agree more. Yes, we already had some fair surfing up until mid-September, with some fog and wind in the mix. But then, suddenly, it turned up a notch! The conditions changed over night, and the ocean gifted us some really pumping non stop surfing conditions. And, the best thing about it, it was not only for one or two days, but it simply kept going and going! Half meter to two meters waves, friendly to challenging, fun to stiff, we had it all!

The best Surf Spots in Northern Portugal
Unridden sandbar somewhere around our backyard.

The sandbars were so good and with such a good design all the way from Espinho to Esmoriz, that you could, dare to say it, conclude that you were surfing Kelly Slater’s type of waves. Yes, it was that good! Besides this, the water was warmer than usual, reaching to 21 degrees on the warmer days, which was really nice to our Portuguese standards.

September’s treasures back home. Espinho.

September stands for fun

We and our friends/guests spent hours in row in the water and, by the time we hang out to dinner, for a drink or just to chill out a bit, the topic was mainly surf related. After surfing events were modest and disciplined, because we just run out of juice from surfing all day and because we wanted to be fit and ready the were not that long as we run out of power fast and, most important, we knew that on the next day there will be more.

One of the wonderful magical unique things that we love more about this time of the year is nature’s light and sunsets. And September 2017 was pretty generous with that as we had experienced so many cool ones, especially because we were able to enjoy them while surfing or while having a beer in Porto.

This concludes our story about “Porto surfing in September” for 2017. About what it’s to come. -October, expectations are evenly high, but let’s leave that  for the next occasion. Say… in a couple of days! Can’t wait for it!

You want a surf vacation that feels authentic, where there is personal attention given to you and where bonding takes place in a relaxing environment. Please consider renting a bed or room in one of our Surf houses in Esmoriz or Espinho in Porto Portugal.  We talked a lot, but take a look at our Watermark Youtube Porto Portugal video and see what we mean.

Keep on paddling!

Watermark Surf House