On their annual pilgrimage through Europe, four members of the renowned “Brazilian Storm” – Filipe Toledo, Miguel Pupo, Ian Gouveia and Italo Ferreira – dropped past Wavegarden’s R&D center for a day of surfing, training and fun. Filipe, Miguel and Ian were accompanied by their partners and young babies. Accustomed to watching their husbands surf all day, the girls were happy to get amongst the action and catch a few waves as well.
“We got the families here, the whole crew. It’s actually a big party right now”, said Filipe Toledo. “And, after we catch about 55,000 waves each, the wives are going to get out there and shred it”.
The guy’s session was phenomenal to watch with all the surfers unleashing their biggest manoeuvres. “Filipe was going to air. It’s really good for throwing the tail and even doing air reverses”, said Miguel Pupo, who was consistently executing 5 backhand turns on each wave.
After several hours of testing the different types of waves on offer, the size was dialled down to slow moving white water waves to allow the girls to hit the water. “I don’t surf, I don’t even know how to surf. I tried once (in the sea) and couldn’t even stand up. And, in the pool, I surfed so good”, chuckled Bruna Pupo, elated after her surf session.
“It’s a good spot to learn, similar to Waikiki (in Hawaii)”, confirmed Ananda Toledo. “Even if you don’t know how to surf, you are going to have so much fun. Even with a baby, it’s not dangerous”.
As the afternoon sun started to descend over the Basque mountains, Filipe Toledo, tired after an intense day of surfing, expressed what the experience meant to him. “Such a fun day, a really special day with friends and family too. Even the wives had a lot of fun, they didn’t want to leave”.
