Praia do Estoril doesn’t get talked about the way Ericeira or Nazaré do. It’s not a big-wave spot. It doesn’t have a world-famous reef. What it has is something harder to find: consistency. When the wind and the swell align, Estoril delivers a long, peeling wave that runs down the beach in a way that feels almost too good to be real.
It’s a longboarder’s wave. Patient, readable, generous. The kind that lets you walk to the nose, hang five, turn back, and do it again before the wave finally gives out in the shallows. I surfed it one afternoon when everything clicked — and came home and painted it before the feeling left my body.
Painting the Wave While the Memory Was Still Fresh
This is how most of my surf illustrations start: in the van, immediately after a session, with the memory of the wave still physically present. The paddling fatigue in the shoulders. The salt still on the skin. That state is the best reference a watercolour artist can have — not a photograph, but a felt memory.
The figure in the painting is riding with that particular longboard ease — upright, unhurried, reading the wave rather than fighting it. That’s what Estoril does to you. It slows everything down and makes the ocean feel approachable again.
The short video below shows the painting coming together — from the first wash to the final marks.
I have a feeling there’s a lot more to come from this stretch of coast. The Atlantic doesn’t run out of waves. And I haven’t run out of reasons to paint them.
Prints available in the shop — worldwide shipping, 4–9 days. More process videos on YouTube.
From surfers, to surfers.
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