Rowan Aish Blog: Portugal

The urban Portugal of postcards is a sea of double storied, white washed buildings, with each home roughly sharing the same square, boxlike design. But think not squares of geometry but rather contemporary art, as if a young prince who favored crowns over pencils was the architect. The low wooden doors sway gently from the walls with a regular peculiarity that suggests each home was built using the same broken level. The cobbled streets make less sense still, winding narrowly and at abstract angles. I’m reminded of water negotiating its path to the sea. Finally, rising intermittently from the picture are monumental churches, castles and windmills. Relics of a glorified age.

The Lisbon I see now seems to me caught somewhere between the postcard image above and the mismatched, tasteless sprawl of frantic modern development. The new high-rises, though unfinished, seem already to be decaying, as does the cracked tarmac. Despite this the distinctive character of postcard Portugal still holds residence and now, as if to combat the rising buildings now drowning the churches and windmills, there’s a new breed of dominant architecture. Rising at perfectly geometrical right angles from the mess come the towering phenomenon of the Portuguese mega malls.

Obviously these malls made quite the impression on me and the guys. I can report with confidence that at least half of every day in Portugal was spent roaming the many exotic clothing stores and feasting from the endless supply of tasty and affordable fast food restaurants.

The day came to compete in the 6* Estoril Quicksilver Pro, and although it cut seriously into our Mall time, Ricardo, Nick and Myself managed to drag ourselves to the beach for the early morning check-in.

As in the last event the team was fortunate to be seeded straight into the Round of 96. This meant a little bit of money and half decent points were guaranteed, the flip side is that unless you put on a good show you came a long way for a depressing 25 minutes.

Nick and I were the first of the Kiwis to have a go, coming up against a well-known Aussie and a faceless Brazilian. A quick posting of two excellent scores by the Aussie shattered our hopes of team domination, so once again I found myself fighting, for points and for money, the one guy who I really cared about in this contest.

As it panned out my wave selection wasn’t the best, but I surfed an O.K. heat and was looking good until the last 10. Then Nick snuck the bomb! Putting up two big (painful to watch) turns and being rewarded with 8points. I spent the last part of the heat scrambling madly from one side of the contest area to the other desperately looking for a seven, but for Nick the fire was burning and I was no match the man trained in the hassling arts by Mount Manganui’s finest. Consequently I dipped at third while Nick progressed to stand another day.

Ricardo had the worst luck, arguably drawing the hardest heat of the round. with Brazilian wonder kid Alejo Muniz (eventual winner of the event), as well as CT surfer Miky Picon. Ricardo started strong, posting an 8point ride with some excellent surfing in the early minutes, but cracks appeared in Ricks normally steely competitive demeanor, and he spent the next 20 min scrambling for a growing score.

It was all up to Nick to keep the dream alive and do be honest, I thought this was his event. The small punchy waves had the feel of a certain island off Mount Manganui, (although not nearly as good – as Nick made very clear). In the pre-heat free surfs I decided whitey showed as much flare as anyone but more importantly… the man deserves a result!

Unfortunately though when it came time to perform there was something missing in the Mounties weaves and rotations. That’s not to say he didn’t put up a good fight, In the last seconds he had us all on our feet with too good fin busts that could have been the score. But it was too little too late and Nick joined the rest of us…. In the mall.