News — Portugal

Another week in one of my favorite country's, Portugal! Coming from a Portuguese / Hawaiian mother I have always  been enchanted with my Grandfathers homeland... I first visited Portugal as a sponsored surfer in 1998 with some of my best central coast homies, Dustin Ray and Gabe Gazzolla along with some New Yorkers from the UNSOUND Crew...We had a blast, scored epic waves, stayed in ancient castles and ate like kings! I have been hooked ever since, even making two family trips there last year to visit friends and enjoy the easy lifestyle. 

This year I went for a different reason, I went to document one of the largest forcasted swells ever seen to hit the region. Unfortunately a slight Westerly angle to the swell decimated any chance of the swell becoming historic.

Fortunately, I did decide to shoot the WSL event that took place a couple of days before the big swell was supposed to hit. And I am so glad I did. The waves were good size and PERFECT! I stood there all day in awe of what was going down with all of the surfers and rescue ski's going 100% all Day. These are just a few shots from the day...

Contest results:

1st  Grant "Twiggy" Baker

2nd Lucas Chianca

3rd Naxto Gonzalez

4th Alex Botelho

5th Joao De Macedo

6th Russel Bierke

All Photos by Mike Lopaka Jones info@azhiaziam.com