Peyton Willard / Youtube
Supertubos is not a wave for your everyday surfer. When it’s at its best, each barreling wave looks like a broken bone waiting to happen for the Average Joe. But CT surfers aren’t Average Joes.
Likewise, the free surfs in Peniche leading up to each year’s Rip Curl Pro Portugal are not your average free surfs. I’d argue that the week leading up to the event each year finds a way to outshine the actual contest in terms of performance, partly because the wave has a knack for giving its best just outside of the competition window.
True to form (or just proving my personal bias), Supertubos has been going off this past week. The whole CT is in town and filmmaker Peyton Willard has been posting up on the beach to film the action. Thursday morning at Supertubos featured a pretty insane session with an A-list lineup — athletes like Italo Ferreira, Griffin Colapinto, Erin Brooks, and the list goes on. Willard even documented Crosby Colapinto on a handful of waves fresh off a elbow injury that sidelined him the first two events. His return to competition will be one of the top storylines this week.
Willard breaks down the changing conditions throughout two sessions — one morning session and another in the afternoon with shifting winds but size that holds up.
As for the conditions during this contest, forecasters are expecting some sizeable surf mixed with unfavorable conditions starting Monday.
“Shoulda been here yesterday.”
