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Happy one year birthday!

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 03:16:08 GMT

One year old - stronger, wiser, faster, steeper!

The Billabong Pro Pipeline has rolled around again and reminds me that almost one year has passed since we launched this website and the sweet sunny beach-home it represents!

One year, a lot has happened!

Always listening to feedback and what our clients desire, we have increased again wifi speed, buffered the coworking space acoustics, added board racks to our bicycles, installed a comfy couchy "family area" chill out zone for lazy afternoons and boardgames with wine...... phew! I'm sure I've forgotten still more improvements!

I've loved and broken one new surfboard, and then replaced it with an even finer second hand oldie that might just be my magic board!

I spent some of the unprecedented wet and cold winter away in warmer climates and realized that indeed, there's no place like home. Nothing beats the Portuguese morning sun with a Pastel de Nata and a "meia de leite". Nothing beats a sunset over Almagreira with the happiest dog chasing the tiniest birds at low tide. And as for waves, I was left wondering why I hauled a board over an ocean when the offerings at home in Portugal are as good as I could ever find, any day!

I'm looking forward to the long Portuguese summer days already, open air intimate music gigs, beach picnics and grassy blankets, North Coast sessions and drinks with friends. Pura Vida, Aloha, Bemvindo, Saude!

Mid-Summer Madness

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 11:34:43 GMT

...and FOMO

Ok, so "mid summer madness" sounds like a tacky highstreet sale event, but it has a ring to it. And in fact, compared to the relative peace of the winter months, there's an element of madness around, between summer festivals, stage set-ups and chaotic street closures, crowded parkings, and hot hot hot middays! But luckily mostly in a good sense :)

We're technically past midsummer but it's mid summer here in the sense that July and August are high holiday season and right now, the distance backwards to peaceful June is as far as it is to reach peaceful September! Help!!!

I joke. It's probably not uncommon to have a love-hate relationship with summer. There's so much to love! Hailing from a notoriously cold and rainy country myself, there's possibly nothing higher on my favorites list than a warm summer evening, no need for a sweater (or in fact any clothing adjustment from day to night), that salty smell of glowing sun kissed skin and a bit of open air live music.

My biggest enemy at the moment is Fear-Of-Missing-Out! There's just so much on at the moment, choices are inevitable and sometimes, you will end up thinking, "man, I should have gone there!" I'm talking about music/social events, but it sounds like a classic surf problem, right?

Rule number one: Surf is where you find it - Gerry Lopez.

But here's a thought that has crossed my mind lately - there's a time and a mood. Sometimes, grabbing your biggest board and surfing tiny cruisey waves with a bunch of friends will feel like the best decision in the world, and sometimes it's ok to ditch that and seek out that one solitary glorious sandbank that will surely become crowded in a day or two, and push your limits of steepness and speed.

Happily there is no fear of missing out. They're like food and drink. If you're thirsty you'll drink.

Endless lines

Sun, 19 Jun 2022 16:16:49 GMT

What we like to see, lines to the horizon

Full disclosure: it's been hard to keep up with the Championship Tour while the surf here has been so good!

Today I just told our guests how lucky they've been with their stay with respect to the surf and the weather...but am I kidding myself?! I feel that it's every month that I say, "oh yes June (insert any month) seems to be a good one for waves". Is there any month that is not good for waves here?!!

I'm a huge fan of the longer summer days when a double surf session is the norm rather than the bonus. Yesterday I got three surfs! It was Saturday after all. You'd wonder when do we get a chance to get anything else done!

And that's one reason why I've been missing out on the CT stops - The other reason is that G-land is such a darn perfect wave that it became monotonous to see pro after pro perform every trick in their repertoire on the perfect canvas that is G-Land.

El Salvador Surf City is more to my watchlist taste and I did put in my due viewing time this stop (it helped that it was usually running after dinner our time) - and I think it went hand in hand with the great waves I've been scoring. Nothing like a bit of pro surfing to get you psyched up! A certain surfer once said "If you can perform it in your dreams, then you can do it in reality!" seriously, muscle memory can be trained while sleeping!! Ive been dreaming of Filipe's "easy peasy" full rotations (both directions) and Carissa's perfect layback snaps - I have a lot more dreaming to do, but doing in the right direction ;)

Wave selection and positioning came into play again in El Salvador and for me that's a huge interest factor for watching how the pro's do it. There's got to be more than luck in Stef Gilmore seeming to land all the best set waves in her heats.

I would have been happy for any of the quarter finalists to take the prize, but particularly Filipe, who despite wearing the Yellow Jersey, always seems to make the finals and lose by a hair. He certainly seems to be having the most fun out there.

Still, it's great to see Griffin (always a fun surfer to watch) take away another win, showing that there's plenty of fresh blood to contend with among the younger, newer tour surfers.

Delighted too to see Caroline Marks in the semis - there's another young star (and very serious sportsperson) in the making, and happy to see her get recognition for her beyond her years skill.

Still and all, Stef really did take it away with gusto and nobody can deny that. Champ well deserved.

And now, back to dreaming and back to my backyard....

Back to Bells

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 16:52:16 GMT

Let's go surfing...with Bells on!

Another CT stop, another ten days of world class surfing. As Kaipo said, it's as good as any surf movie (and he doesn't mean a surf movie like Point Break!)

The time difference wasn't quite as obliging this stop. Surfing in Hawaii gifted us primetime screening. Surfing in our backyard was even better! Surfing in Australia means dawn patrol at 10pm our time and mostly I had to catch up on the results via replays the next day. WSL is getting five stars from me, as I love that I can choose between full replay and condensed heat, but inevitably I often end up watching the condensed heat and its just not quite the same without the running commentary, not to mention the matter of waves selection, which gets lost in the condensed heat.

The week got off to a small and messy start, and I was a little concerned about the pressure to squeeze men and women into ten days. But such is professional surfing, as is soul surfing - you just can't control the conditions! Happily the conditions cleaned up by day two, giving us perfectly peeling sizable waves by round of 16.

Heat of the stop goes to John John and Chianca, both of them absolutely ripping, for want of a superlative word! True to point, if you want to break down good surf technique, watch this heat again and again, and again in slow motion!

Let's talk about the men - no surprises that half of the semifinalists are on homeground! No surprises either that our favorite Brazilians hold up the other half, along with that golden boy from North Shore. I've got my own personal favorites of course (two of them!).

By the way, have you noticed how light and smooth Filipe surfs?! It's like there's no drag or friction between his board and the water, just silk on silk. I've never seen flow like it, as though at every moment his board is gliding at consistent speed, no hang ups, no burst, no drags, just flow! like a paper aeroplane on air!

And to the women, I honestly think that women's surfing has reached another level this year, credit it to spot-sharing with the men or not, it can just as easily be a new revolution in women's surf! Still for me, Tyler simply out-surfs the lot. She shows more hunger and drive than any of the women and it obviously pays off!

Update two day later: A nice change from checking emails to checking the CT score in the morning! Alas, I didn't stay up for the finals, but I did surely watch the replay. A little smaller than we'd like for a finals day, but ideal for power forces Filipe and Tyler. Perfect waves for Filipe (who never needs siz e for speed) and Tyler who was clearly going to throw all her energy at any ripple offering points - well deserved wins. I'd be delighted to see these champs go on to take the world titles - it's a good time for Filipe, and as for Tyler, let's see if anyone can take her on!

Upcycling scrapwood

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 20:25:56 GMT

Old furniture has nine lives too

When I arrived back from four weeks away, Gigi had accumulated this stock of handcrafted furniture waiting for a paint and finishing touch. There's little that excites me more than clean lines pushing in from the horizon (especially in a secret wave spot), well made sushi, and a blank canvas to paint on! Needless to say I got stuck in as soon I could. The Portuguese climate is simply brilliant for working outdoors so I got to top up my Vitamin D too after four weeks in overcast Ireland.

Recently my YouTube fix is Kacha and her furniture art (this has replaced watching watercolors being painted - I find both so therapeutic!) so I had lots of ideas to try out.

Luckily for me, I know how to mix my own paint so I don't invest too much in materials and I can try a variety of shades before settling on the right one.

The scrap wood used for the base of these desks was pretty rough looking so my first idea was to give them a white undercoat, so as to start with a brighter canvas.

Yellow is one of my favorite colours, especially when paired with blue (sand, sea and sky no less) so I have been dreaming of painting a whole wall in the Kelly Slater room a mellow yellow. I figured I could start with the Kelly desk and see how good it looks. I mixed my own yellow by simply adding yellow tint to white acrylic - I use up wall paint where I can, and where it has good coverage. All my paint is water based, easy to clean and better for the environment.

I got a lovely lemon yellow that I thought was just perfect....until I took the preliminary product up to the studio where I noticed how it clashed (and so badly!) with the sunset duvet set. In any case, the structure needed a second coat so the lemon yellow just serves as a further brightener to the finished tone. I added the teeniest drop of red dye to my mix to get the perfect sunset yellow.

The Gerry desk looked pretty awful with the white undercoat, as the wood itself was pretty discolored and rough. What I noticed however was that the cool stamps on the pallet wood showed through the paint and in some cases, are branded in, giving a nice textured print. My next thought was to color up the white with Petroleum Blue (used in the bookshelf and other places in the house) and so I experimented with dry brushing, to highlight the textures areas. Petroleum Blue in itself is too dark a color for the Gerry room. I decide to go with the lovely dusky cacao color used on the feature wall as a top layer, letting the Petroleum Blue color to peek through and again bringing out the stencil pattern of the branding. It just so happens that Petroleum Blue shows up in my oil painting in that room - a sweet coincidence or my subconscious showing that I like this color so much!

The layered look was so appealing, I decided to go with dry brushing instead of distressing on both pieces (and another piece for our own home). I had a bit of Miami blue remaining in the tin, and since I've used this to highlight the wardrobe panels in t he Slater room, I decided to use a bit of this on the desk too. This turned out quite simply amazing looking, so much so that I took a bit of the Miami brush to the Gerry desk too!

The most important trick with dry brushing, as with distressing and layering, is to know when to stop! I think I stopped just in time, partially because the glorious weather was drying my brushed too fast to work with! But all in all I'm thrilled with the outcome. Check out our instagram for the in between photos!

Celebrating Women

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 20:29:11 GMT

Here's to women everywhere holding their own

It's International Women's Day and this year a milestone was finally reached in professional women's surfing, surfing Pipeline in the same conditions (and with at least the same vigor) as the men, so plenty to celebrate and to think about.

We know that women in ancient Hawaii surfed in equal numbers and frequently better than their male counterparts. And yet somehow, having come through industrialization, the expansion and fall of colonial empires, cultural and religious colonization, digitalization, from one edition to the next, women and men are given separate pages in the social rulebook.

When we talk about influential women, pivotal women, in surfing or in any arena, we look at those who have inspired us individually (and indeed, inspired the masses) to throw out any preconceptions about what we can or can't, should or shouldn't do, and simply be the best "human" we can be.

There hasn't been any time in history when women haven't broken line to follow their passions and values, and that is what has made them great. In any field and across genders, the pursuit of the passion and value is what inspires.

Now is the time to congratulate Tatiana Weston-Webb on her well deserved win at Supertubos. I love Tatiana. I love how she defies the blond bombshell trademark. I love how, in all the pretty headshots for their WSL posters, I think the girls have a cheeky glint in their eye as if to say, "You think I'm just a pretty face? Think again!" I love how they are not afraid to build strength and muscle, even where it has in the past not been fashionable for the "delicate sex". And I love most that they look at a gnarly break, huge Nazare, bombing Jaws, explosive Pipeline, and say, "Well if anyone can do it, I can!"

Today we can again applaud all the women on their performance. Now is the opportunity to congratulate Moana on surfing Pipeline with such prowess and fearlessness, that really inspired me to remind myself to look past the limits that we see placed before us, because they are always only superficial. Three surfers (Malia Manual, Conor Coffin and Owen Wright) chose to print Bethany Hamilton's name on their jersey - she is the very personification of this message in that she overcame the ultimate limit of losing a limb, half her paddle power, and still persevering in the very field that threw up the challenge. Because per passion and values wouldn't let her turn away.

Tyler went through a whole health crisis only a few years ago, leaving her virtually immobile, and she came back fighting, winning the world title in the meantime, and impressing me more than she ever has at Pipeline this year.

Now we can congratulate Brisa Hennessey again for winning Sunset as an underdog, further proving that self-belief is stronger than mass-belief.

Surfing has a special place on International Women's Day because the sport has seemed to be male-dominated maybe more than any other sport - through sponsorship, discrepancies between media representations of male and female surfers, wetsuit design, quality and range, and not least, unspoken priority in the line-up. Though this is slow all changing, to highlight again both genders surfing the same spots and designated equal prize money, thanks to women surfers who have become politicized and put time into arguing for this equality. Thank you Keala Kennelly and Rochelle Ballard, among others. ("be savage, not average"!)

In fact, surfing, with the constant competition for waves in the water, can easily politicize women, as I believe it has me. That can be part of the addiction - the determination to hold your own in the water, not just for yourself, but for all the women who surf alone amongst a majority of men. There is sometimes a noted camaraderie between women in the line-up, which is very nice, when they are surrounded by a majority of male surfers. It is a matter of holding each other up. It would be nicer of course if the camaraderie extended between genders, and both ways! But that's maybe another blog...

When I realized that the surfers (men and women) were wearing on their jerseys for the Meo Pro at Supertubos, in place of their own name, the names of women who inspired them, it triggered something inside me. I think it was a very well thought gesture. It can be quite a personal thing, to identify your own hero, but whether the name is visible or not, written out in print or just kept in mind, I'd like to think I'm wearing my own heroine on my back at all times.

Happy International Women's Day!!

Three days of Super performance

Sat, 05 Mar 2022 11:16:02 GMT

A look back on the past three days before we head into quarters tomorrow!

With three days of the contest down, dawn to dusk surfing, and every version of Portuguese March weather to the mix, it's all still to surf for apparently!

Friday dealt the most spectacular cards so far, in terms of size and difficulty, and the contestants who've made it through have certainly earned their place. I was personally thrilled and relieved that Kelly made it thought the elimination round, because these stops always seem to go one way or another for him, and the smaller messy fare of Thursday was simply not his stage. For me at least, a stop without Kelly as far as the semi's is a little like a curry without the chilli. It's still delicious, but seems to lack a certain something that makes a curry, well, a curry! Having grown up with Kelly in the water, when Kelly gets eliminated, a little bit of the contest flavour is lost along with him. (Needless to say, I'm in the Kelly corner and the Pipeline result simply made my month of January!)

Enough about Kelly, let's talk Brazilian! Italo of course is in the game - I feel he can be relied upon here to do what he does best! He looks like he's having a blast, surfing like there's nobody else around! Italo gives up priority even in final minutes just so that he can have as much fun as his full thirty golden minutes allows!

Filipe is also surfing really well this stop. Totally unlike Italo, he was vibing Chilly Pilly this morning, delivering his 360's as groovy discospins in the foam. The surfers who enjoy the most really do seem to perform the best. Italo or Filipe could easily walk away with it now.

I've counted nine Brazilians on tour (including the Pupo brothers who had a tense fraternal match off today), so far three to the quarters and still waiting on what Ibelli and Jadson Andre can do! What a country for dealing up great surfers!

The other surfing world power, Australia, with nine tour surfers too, has delivered us a strikingly young bunch of superstars lately, and two very tight all-Australian heats today! I was sad and surprised to see Jack Robinson go, as I'd pinned him as one of the best tube riders (along with John John and Kelly, but where do I stop!...Ethan Ewing...Colapinto...!!!) but Callum Robson earned his place in the quarters.

I'm happy too to see that Jordy is still there. He had his work cut to take out the Sunset champ and he's guaranteed to impress.

Kanoa's being talked about too of course, and not for the first time! I always think of Kanoa as a numbers guy - he'll always know exactly what he needs and how the rankings will fall, and the pressure and competitive drive might just get to him.

And then there's John John :) Well, let me go on record now as having tipped him for the Supers pro, haha. Not a unique prediction I'm sure, but he's just such a flawless (and flowy!) machine in the water. There aren't many surfers who can glide, slip or sneak their way out of a diminishing tunnel, but John John simply never fails to deliver.

And there must be something in the Portuguese water...or else the cold is numbing our surfers' feet! Have they got the wrong wax! (you thought Portugal was warm, right?!) There were many many incompletions today that cut some potential excellent scores down in size. Is it possible that we might all surf better in warmer water?! I'd have to ask Irish big wave surfer, Conor Maguire :)

Conditions turned really optimal for the women as the tide dropped this morning, giving them beautiful steep glassy walls to show off their stuff.

We've got three former world champs in the quarters, no surprise, but gotta hand it to Tatiana Weston-Webb for women's performance today. She showed pretty clearly that her frontside is just as dangerous as her backhand. A pity for seventeen year old Luana who really did put it up to her right to the end.

Tyler was nailing all the rights today, and I'm finding I like her more and more. Her competitive drive since her recovery back on tour had dominated her persona, in my view, the past years. But ever since the Pipeline Pro this year, her good sportsmanship, enjoying the surf for the fun of it, and her impressive commitment in some of the biggest Pipe in competition ever, I'm a big fan. I can see her taking the Supertubos throne and I'd be happy for it - she truly deserves it!

Tomorrow... it's all to play for. The lefts were better on Friday, the rights today. I think the outcome might depend on how what conditions deliver tomorrow, Kelly and John John thriving on bigger gnarlier barrels. Ethan Ewing is one I'm watching too. Tyler might do better with rights, Tatiana is going to excel with either. Or as it went with Sunset, we might get some fresh surprises! Kikas is still carrying the torch for Portugal, he's gonna get the crowd going! I for one am going to be there at 7.30

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The early bird catches the worm

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 13:41:17 GMT

Super's is shaping up to be a great show!

One nice thing about pro surfing is that the superstars actually seem like just ordinary folks. They are not living in some parallel universe and shying away from paparazzi who hunt them down, as is often the case with celebrities in other fields. The fact is, in addition to being excellent enough to do it for a living, they just simply love to surf. Therefore, we find them in the water wherever the waves are good. And luckily for us in Peniche, the waves are often good!

Now in the lead up to the Meo Pro at Supertubos, our superstars are already here...to surf. What else! The forecast is dealing us a good hand and Supertubos is likely to provide as good a stage as ever could be wished for, with perfect air ramps and deep barrels, this coming weekend!

This photo of my personal favorite, the boy-punk from Baía Formosa, was taken just this weekend gone by. Oh what fun!

Meo Pro Portugal Preview

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 12:37:25 GMT

Who's in the lineup?!

The past month gifted us the Pipeline and Sunset pros. Thanks to the time difference, we were sent the perfect dark winter evening gift of live pro surfing. Nothing better after a day's work than to savor the best of pro surfing with entertaining commentaries from the veterans, including Kaipo Guerrero, Rosie Hodge, Laura Enever, Strider Wasilewski and my personal favorite, Chris Cote.

Now I'm already counting down to the Portugal Pro at Supertubos where I'll get to see the action live from the beach! How lucky are we!!

This is one spot on the Tour where spectators can get up really close to the action, with the waves breaking right on the shore.

Check out what Kelly, Coco Ho and Kanoa Igarashi have to say about Supers here !

It's been two and a half years! So stoked to have the pros back in our backyard!

Life is short, keep it sweet

Wed, 23 Feb 2022 12:38:31 GMT

Giving driftwood new life

I'm a fan of keeping things short and sweet. Some of my best surfs have been those first light surfs, pre-dawn, before anyone can check a webcam. Surfing almost alone for that half hour, the waves are ours for the taking. I can have more waves then I'd get in a ninety minute surf on a crowded point.

As I get older, I hear more and more accounts from friends who have come face to face with their mortality. The moral is always the same, live each day like it‘s your last. I was probably sitting on a surfboard, maybe thinking of Brian, when the line came to my head. Life is short, keep it sweet. It rings so well as a lyric, I had to Google it to see if it‘s been already coined. I only came across the variation, the 2018 country song lyric, Life is short, Make it sweet. (And the more sombre, Don't save all the flowers for the grave).

I prefer my version. And it hangs particularly lovely in the kitchen.