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30th september
A disappointingly wet summer, compounded with wrist issues, has meant relatively little skating over the last couple of months.
However CJ & I decided to go to the Oporto Surf Camp in Esmoriz near Porto, Portugal - where the drink Port originates from! We had a week surfing the waves with some great people, with a little skate action to boot..!
 I had hoped to visit a wonderful-looking skatepark that I had researched prior to going - a skatelite-type park just north of the city.
However the weather conspired against me and it rained for 3 days, so no go.
 I did however manage to skate a park in Espinho, the next village and got a couple of shots.
The Oporto Surfcamp also had a number of boards for use, including some sweet longboards to cruise around on at lunchtime in-between surfs.
Our guide Sandro was a good longboarder, and I had the opportunity to board with him a couple of days later.
There were a number of different surf beaches, each with different geography that dictated whether they would be suitable or not, dependant on the weather conditions.
We surfed at 2 different beaches, one in the city of Porto itself, and the other at the edge of the jungle by Esmoriz.
We enjoyed some great lunches in-between surfs, including one memorable visit to a restaurant serving the local speciality - proper fried calamari straight from the ocean, tentacles and all!
We spend a couple of lunchtimes on the longboards - oSandro was quite a dab hand at skating, at one point hitching a ride off a Police van, Back-to-the-Future style ;)
On our last night the surf camp put on a BBQ for us, with "caprinha" cocktails and load of food and beer - and wehad a good last evening with our surf camp hosts and friends from the village...
But back to Blighty we had to come, back to the land of eternal rain - and just in time for the UK Open Championships...
But more on that in the next article!
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