What a iniciante week actually includes
Sessions on sand-bottom beach breaks only. No reef, no rocks, no crowd pressure.
Foam and soft-top boards sized to your weight, swapped down as you improve.
Small groups so the coach can call individual ondas instead of shouting at a line.
Theory in the fifteen minutes before you paddle out: tide, rip, priority, where to sit.
Video feedback mid-week, when it still leaves time to change something.
A rest day placed on the windiest or biggest previsão day, not on a fixed calendar slot.
How a day actually runs
- 07:15
Forecast call over coffee. The coach says which spot and why — you follow the reasoning, not just the instruction.
- 08:00
First session, before the wind fills in. Two hours in the water is the norm, not four.
- 11:30
Breakfast, then the flat part of the day: sleep, read, stretch, or walk into the village.
- 16:00
Second session or the video review, depending on what the afternoon vento did.
- 19:30
Dinner together. Tomorrow's plan is set here, on tomorrow's previsão.
Where iniciante sessions happen
Croco Beach and Panorama carry most beginner sessions: sand bottom, multiple peaks and enough width that a group can spread out. On bigger swells the coaches move north to the sheltered corners, or south towards Aourir where the beach takes the size better. Nobody paddles out at Anchor Point in week one, and that is deliberate.
Iniciante questions
I have never surfed at all. Is that a problem?
No. Roughly half the guests on a beginner week have never stood on a board. The first two sessions are in waist-deep whitewater and the progression from there is quick if you sleep and eat properly.
How fit do I need to be?
Fit enough to swim 50 metres calmly. Paddling fitness builds during the week itself — the limiting factor for most beginners is shoulder fatigue by day four, which is exactly why the rest day exists.