What to do and see in Mafra, Central Portugal: The Best Gear Rentals

Reviewed By S_Andreas_Dr

West Coast Surf School can highly be recommended. The team is very professional and not only concerned about the safety of the customers, they also want you to learn a lot during the lessons and most importantly to have fun on the board. I never stood on a surf board before. Together with my girlfriend, who already surfed before, I booked a course for beginners. First of all, all the instructors at the West Coast Surf School are very friendly and professional. They made sure, we got perfectly fitting wetsuits along with shoes to protect our feet on the sharp rocks. The lesson started with a short introduction how to handle the surfboard and leash. The instructors made sure, everyone in the group understood the most basic safety rules on the board and in the water. Next, they showed us the correct technique for standing up on the surfboard. Finally and most importantly, they reminded us to have fun on the board. One of the outstanding characteristics of this school is that one instructor only teaches a small group of people. In our case, only four people were guided by Nuno, who owns the school. The other surf schools that were on the same beach had bigger groups and seemed much less organised. After the short introduction we immediately started to head for the waves. Our instructor Nuno took us into the ocean and began to push us into the waves. He always picked some good waves for me as a beginner and it really was a lot of fun. Nuno always was concerned about our safety and reminded others surfers and also surfing instructors to keep enough distance for everybody’s safety. He was always very calm and gave very clear instructions and advice how to improve my technique and how to steer the board. The first few hours went by so quickly and after we had a group lesson on the first day, we decided to book a private lesson for the next day. Nuno welcomed us at the school and this time directly started to give some more advanced technique advice about how to steer the surfboard and how to increase or decrease the speed. As it was only my girlfriend and me with him, he gave feedback after each wave. His nice and calm attitude was very welcoming and he made sure, we made progress and had a lot of fun on the waves. If you plan to do some surfing lessons in Ericeira, I highly recommend to book a lesson with Nuno or one of his instructors at West Coast Surf School, as quality, safety and respect are some of their most important values. If you can, book a private lesson, but even if you choose to do a group lesson, you will learn a lot as the groups are always very small and the instructors can concentrate on each and everyone in the group. Thank you, Nuno for the nice time!