Sometime around the beginning of last year I received an email from my buddy Whip in England, whom I had met through my friend Scott Madill in London while skating and couch surfing around Europe back in 2005-2007. Unfortunately, Scott tweaked his back hammering some concrete working on a D.I.Y spot in London a week before departure and had to miss the trip. I was honored to be invited to Whip’s “Eel Do“, which in colloquial terms is a bachelor party where him and the lads from Cornwall and London were heading to southern Portugal in search of waves, skateparks, and some boozing before he tied to knot.
Early May rolled around and with surfboard, skateboard and camera bag packed, I was heading in the bus to a Ryan Air airport in the middle of nowhere to take the two hour flight to Faro in Portugal where I met the rest of the crew in the airport a few hours and a few beers later. After a couple hour drive we arrived in Sagres on the southern west tip of Portugal and the “bachelor party” began.
In order to write this off legitimately on my taxes, in case Uncle Sam (or Auntie Merkel) are checking my receipts, I decided to make a little report on the trip. Nah, just kidding, the dudes were ripping both in and out of the water and were deserving of this little feature. Unfortunately for the English dudes, the waves were only mediocre until they all headed on the flight back to England the day before I had my flight back to Germany… They handed over the rental car at the airport and I returned to the west coast to search some waves and sleep in the reclined front seat of the car. On the last day the waves were firing. I filmed for an hour as the swell was building, and then my battery died. I stashed the camera in the car, buried my keys in the sand and went and caught the best waves I’d had in a few years. Thanks Whip and the rest of the dudes for a good time!
Martyn Thomas. Fat ollie over the hip.Johnners. Frontside grind in the round bowl at the end of the snake run.Martyn Thomas. Front rock in the round bowl with a 12 pack of Super Bock for motivation.Adam “Johnners” Johns. Front rock.Chris “Whip” Bisson. Frontside disasterJohnners. Fakie smith grind or switch feeble.Rich “Pob Scumstash” Downton. Sweeper in the street course of Park Radical.Johnners ollie’s the hip in the little bowl.Whip slammed trying to make a better disaster and had a little one of his own.Whip. Crailslide on the quarter in the street course. Parque Radical.Pob Scumstash loves sweepers. After sweeping up the little bowl he swept over the hip, to tail.Griptape sticker job of the trip. Pob representing Confusion, Concussion, Creature, Witchcraft and Hoax.Johnners won ripper of the day. Frontside grinding the hip.Johnners threw a few more shrimp on the barbie as the bachelor party was starting to get out of control.It was Whip’s bachelor party, which he referred to as his “Eel Do”. Pictured here after a few Jagermeisters I brought him from duty free (bad idea) after pounding beers from noon til sunset. Things were about to get ugly, and nude.Pob Scumstash model shoot.Whip getting retro with his 60s polaroid camera and sleeveless spring suit wetsuit.Hungover after a long day and night. I think I puked and got kicked out of two bars. Whip never even made it to the bars, even though it was his bachelor party. Smashed his nose in the shower, redefining the word blood bath.Martyn Thomas whipped out this drawing in about 30 minutes while we were getting coffee at the bar. My quad fin surfboard on the rocks.Confusion nature zine. Photo: J. HayThe day after the other lads caught their plane back to england, the waves were good! Way better than any of the other days of surfing. I basically scored the best waves I’ve had in a long time. About an hour after I took this photo the tide dropped a bit and the waves were piping. Stoked.Surf check from the cliff above. It was on!This spot is north of Sagres on the west coast of Portugal. Not hard to find.The surf got a little cleaner and wasn’t closing out so much by the time I hid my camera gear and got my wetsuit on. A few pros to deal with in the lineup, but plenty of waves to be had!Fish market in a small town on the way back to the airport in Faro.I had 30 minutes to kill, and the beach is about 5 minutes from the airport. No parking places but I jumped out the car and the shorebreak was perfect for body surfing and the sun was blazing… Faro is a super crowded touristy city where all the Englanders and Germans go. Cheap Ryan Air ticket, 5 minute drive, and get sunburned and wasted on the beach.Adeus Portugal. Until next time…. All photos: J. HaySkate photo of the trip was with my old Nikon F4 film camera. Johnners. Frontside grinding the big round bowl at Parque Radical. Photo: J. Hay
