Question: Would You Put A Really Good Wave Under The Spotlight To Create “Content”?

Nic Von Rupp, along with local Portuguese stand-outs Ivo Santos and Hugo Pinheiro, recently spent a day towing each other into dreamy pits off the coast of Portugal’s capital city, Lisbon. The spot is named Mar da Calha and in Nic’s words is a “rarely-surfed mysto spot breaking at the mouth of the mighty Tagus River.” 

But like, not so Mysto anymore…

Why have you likely never heard of it? Nic explains, “It’s only when perfectly groomed sandbars combine with clean swell lines, that Mar da Calha comes alive and does its magic.” 

The wave also looks tricky. From a drone’s-eye-view the lineup looks indiscernible and the thought of paddling it is nightmarish. So, Nic and crew commandeer a jetski to step-off right where they need to be. Must be nice. 

What makes these sandbars light up once in a blue moon? The Tagus River. The Tagus is the Mississippi of the Iberian Peninsula, flowing 626 miles from Eastern Spain to the Atlantic Ocean near Lisbon. But as it flows past Lisbon and dumps into the Atlantic it occasionally gifts Portuguese surfers with just the right sand architecture for the clean, long, hollow waves you’ll see in the clip.

Muito obrigado, Tagus etc.