Cabedelo do Douro

Best Surf Season (October - March)

The surf year at Cabedelo do Douro revolves around the North Atlantic's winter engine. From October through March, the Icelandic Low grabs control from the Azores High and aims a conveyor belt of extratropical cyclones toward Iberia. During negative phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), this storm track shifts even farther south, delivering more and more energy to the Portuguese coast. This west-facing river-mouth sandbar is perfectly exposed to the resulting WSW, W, WNW and NW groundswells. Average swell heights run 4.5-6ft (1.4-1.8m) with periods of 11-13s, and the wind is favourable 37-47 percent of the time, often from the offshore ENE-E-SE quadrant. When a low pressure centre stalls west of Portugal and high pressure sits over Spain, Cabedelo lines up with clean, hollow peaks on the sandbar. This is the window for serious surf.