Nazare
As Autumn turns into winter the water gets a little bit chillier and the swell increases from all directions thanks to hurricanes and huge changes in pressure out in the Atlantic. For us, this makes coasteering more difficult and sporadic. However, we still try and get ourselves coasteering as often as the conditions allow us to.

The end of October saw huge Atlantic swells rolling in towards Sagres, which completely rules out coasteering and restricted access to most sea cliff climbs. It was definitely the time to surf.

But it wasn't just Sagres that saw massive waves from the swell. Nazare, home to the world's biggest wave was also going off calling for the world's best big wave surfers to come and test their nerve against the mountain of water. Because coasteering was impossible, we decided to head up to Nazare and check it out.

Peniche
The next stop on our journey back down to the Algarve was Peniche. It's not too far away to drive (it's located pretty much in the middle of Nazare and Lisbon) and has a really great surf scene. Peniche is a peninsula, surrounded by excellent beaches and surf spots which all work differently in different conditions and with varying swells and winds, meaning that you'll always find a wave somewhere. Its convenience for surfers also means that certain breaks get incredibly busy and crowds in the water can be large. However, Peniche is still a great place to try out a surf lesson or find another beach activity.

Ericeira
Directly North-West of Lisbon is the town of Ericeira. With a stunning old town and a lively restaurant and bar scene, it's a must-visit if you're driving through. It has excellent scenery, great beaches, beautiful old squares and architecture and really nice waves. We stayed with a friend who lives just outside the town who showed us some of the nicest spots in Ericeira, but even without a local guide, you can get happily lost in the backstreets and find something incredible to look at or a great restaurant or bar to pass a few hours in.

Sessimbra
After driving through the beautiful countryside surrounding Sintra and through Cascais and Lisbon, we headed towards Sessimbra to see the incredible coastline there. The scenery is awesome and looked like a perfect place to go coasteering. Next to Sessimbra is Arrabida, a natural park with some really stunning cliffs, caves and rocky outcrops and islands which looks fascinating. I was keen to explore but the days are getting shorter and the water is getting colder now that we're approaching winter. Hopefully next time, we'll be able to explore and find some cliff jumping and rock climbing in the area.

 
Alentejo
Perhaps the most beautiful part of Portugal and a must see for anyone visiting the Algarve - it's definitely worth a trip. Alentejo is largely rural with some authentically traditional and beautiful Portuguese towns like Vila Nova de Milfontes and Porto Covo. We had an awesome few days exploring the coastline and going in land to find forests and streams before heading back home to the Algarve.

Back home in Sagres, it's now time to prepare for the winter and next summer. For all coasteering adventure enquiries and booking information, don't hesitate to get in touch. 

This blog post was made with the support and partnership of the guys at Algarve Tips. Check out their website on the link before for the best ideas of things to do, places to visit and great activities in the Algarve.

This month, we had the pleasure of organising an end of season coasteering session for the awesome staff team from Terra restaurant in Sagres.

After a crazy summer season here in the Algarve, it's always a great idea to let your hair down and have some fun by trying out a new activity and the Terra team fully embraced coasteering.
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The group's coasteering adventure took place at our favourite south coast spot and began nice and easy with a few small jumps as an introduction to cliff jumping.

The route also takes in some great rock climbing with some tricky traverses, a few short and technical slabby climbs and an awesome chimney to bridge through. There's also a number of excellent sea caves to explore before the bigger jumps arrive.
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As far as group activities in the Algarve go, it doesn't get much better than coasteering. The combination of rock climbing, wild swimming, cliff jumping and cave exploring makes coasteering the ultimate adventure with plenty of obstacles to not only keep you on your toes, but also get your group working together as a team while getting a healthy dose of adrenaline.
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To find out more about booking your group coasteering session, get in touch via our Contact page or by calling or sending a WhatsApp to +351 919 667 849.

Also, be sure to check out Terra Restaurant located above Praia do Beliche in Sagres for an incredible blend of Portuguese & Italian flavours.

Whilst swimming does of course make up part of the tour, generally the distances are small and with the help of the buoyancy aid you don’t need to be Michael Phelps in order to complete the course. Having said this, if you are unable to swim or feel that you are a particularly weak swimmer I would advise making this known before booking. ​

That’s entirely up to you. The tours are available for groups, families with children and individuals. There are some great discounts available for larger groups, but please check their information concerning Covid-19 regarding any current changes or restrictions. ​

Great weather, small ocean swells and a lot less wind than we're used to at this time of year made last week an unforgettable one for coasteering in the Algarve.

We had the pleasure of taking a small group out this week to explore the south coast with its hidden beaches, crystal clear water and of course, adrenaline-fuelled jumps & we had a blast!

Here's a few snaps of that session: 

If you like the look of our action-packed, adrenaline pumping coasteering tours, why not book yours today?

We're committed to making sure that guests on our coasteering tours have adventures of the highest quality. That's why we're doing everything we can to ensure the highest standards of hygiene at all times in compliance with the Clean & Safe guidelines set out by Turismo de Portugal.

In order to keep you even safer whilst enjoying our tours, we're taking the following measures:

• Reduced group sizes.
• We're providing hand sanitiser for all guests travelling with us in our vehicle.
• Our vehicle will be thoroughly sanitised with approved cleaning products after every journey.
• Reducing the capacity of our vehicle in accordance with social distancing.
• Travelling with face masks.
• Being even more thorough with our cleaning of equipment.

We understand that the pandemic has proven to be an incredibly difficult time for everybody and we want to ensure you that we're doing everything in our power to make our tours as fun & safe as possible. 

We hope to see you soon!
​Jim & Nick

One of our favourite things to do is to dream of new places to visit and try out coasteering there. 

Coasteering is becoming more and more popular as an activity for tourists and locals all around the world and it's got us thinking about the countries and coasts we'd most like to explore. Here's our wish list of places we'd love to travel to for coasteering.

This archipelago off the south-west corner of England looks incredible. Not only does it look like a beautiful part of the world to travel to, but the islands' coasts look like one giant playground for would-be adventurers.
The guys at Kernow Coasteering know the area like the back of their hand and provide great trips on St. Mary's. Check out this YouTube edit to get a flavour of island coasteering.

As soon as the opportunity arises, we're visiting the Azores, a group of islands located in the Atlantic ocean about 1500km west of Lisbon. The islands were all formed by volcanoes underneath the ocean so there are mountains inland and incredible cliffs, caves and rock formations along the coasts.

We're not the first people to want to go cliff jumping in the Azores. Red Bull have been hosting an event on their Cliff Diving World Championship on the island of Sao Miguel for years. Check out this video to get a taste of what coasteering on the Azores could be like:

Rugged, wild, isolated; Ireland's west coast is everything you want for a coasteering destination.  Sadly we've never travelled there specifically for coasteering but when we get the chance to visit, it's going to be top of our list of things to do. 

Ok, I know what you're thinking, jumping into the sea in Norway is going to be pretty cold, but with a nice think wetsuit, some good booties and gloves, it would be incredible. In the Magma Unesco Global Geopark, coasteering is taking off and they have awesome features to explore and great jumps to send.

Honestly, I don't know much about coasteering in the Philippines but the landscape looks epic. With huge cliffs rising out of the ocean, it really looks like it could be a perfect option for jumping and exploring. Red Bull have also made a stop there on their world tour so we know jumping is possible - maybe not from the same heights as these guys though:

During this pandemic our minds wonder back to simpler times and to places where we would love to visit again once this is all over. In no particular order, here are our top 5 favourite coasteering spots.   

1. Tintagel- North Cornwall, UK  

 A Baptism of fire - this is where our coasteering careers began, on a cold Sunday morning in February.  As you can see, a heavy wave's about to descend on Nick as he clings onto the side of a cliff just for a thrill. It's that thrill that keeps you in the 'now'. 

Tintagel is home to the legend of King Arthur, which gives this spot a unique mystical feel. Hidden caves can open up playgrounds of features, from 12 meter cliff jumps to gushing over-pours that will wash any cobwebs away, and exposed Islands that you can hop along as the waves crash around you.    

Every time we've visited Tintagel we've not been disappointed, even in more placid conditions on a summer's evening it still feels magical. 
 
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3. Anstey's Cove- Devon UK. 
 
This spot is a classic, it's the bread and butter for most freelance coasteer guides based in South Devon. It's a commercial spot for sure, however there are many different options available to not meet other groups or wait for jumps. Its great at both high and low tides and has some awesome sump* features that really test your nerve.  
If your daring to go the whole route from beach to the quarry' Long quarry point'  you will encounter this spot's, best features including a range of jumps each with different take-offs available. The pick of the jumps being the 'cave jump'. ​
*sump- underwater tunnel.

5. Sagres, Algarve-Portugal
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At last we hear you cry! Of course Sagres was going to be up there in our list of favourite places to go coasteering. Located in the south west Algarve and at the most south westerly point of mainland Europe 'The End of the World' is one of the most beautiful places to visit and explore. 
This makes it our final favourite spot , we thought it was that good here that we started a business to spread the word of our passion!
We have 3 spots that we use around Sagres, each bringing something different to the table or should I say waters. 

   
​The coronavirus pandemic has forced the majority of the world into lock-down. Everyone except 'key-workers' are to stay at home in isolation.  There's been a huge increase in the number of people working from home across a range of sectors, but what are you to do when your job & your hobbies lie in the great outdoors?

Outdoor instructors are a rare breed of people. We're not made to be inside and this is an incredibly tough time for us so we've created a survival kit full of resources for outdoor industry professionals to help keep you entertained and preserve your sanity during the quarantine. 

Here's a load of links of things to do - ENJOY! 👍

​Watch Outdoor Films

There's a wealth of great films out there to watch about extreme sports and nature but it's difficult to find them all in one place right? Wrong. 

Click here to access 100 outdoor films to sink your teeth into and keep you dreaming about the day you can go outside again.

Here's our personal favourite:

Stay active.

Fitness goes hand in hand with the nature of our work and being so active on the job means that we often taken it for granted. Yes, we can get out for a walk or a run but besides that it's important to stay fit and devise a training routine suitable to your sport(s). Here's a list of sport-specific workouts & resoucres you can do from home:

Climbing:

• 19 Climbing home workouts for when you hate the gym
• Home climbing workout with Tom Randall
• Floor-based core training for climbing

Kayak:

• Get in shape for kayaking
• Kayak home workout
• Core exercises for paddlers

Surfing:

• ​7 Home-based exercises to improve your surfing
• Top 20 surf fitness exercises for power, strength & stability
• Urban Surfer's home workout

If these workouts don't do it for you, get onto Mr. Motivator's YouTube channel  and subscribe for daily workouts.

 
Find adventure in a book.

Whatever your sport is, from surfing to ice fishing, someone's bound to have written a book about it. Here's a rundown of our top adventure books to read to keep the spirit of adventure alive during the days of lock-down:

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life
William Finnegan's autobiography documents his years of travelling the globe in search of waves. We all know what it's like to be obsessive about our sport, but Finnegan takes it to the next level - his love of surfing borders on addiction and highlights the sacrifices we make in order to pursue the things we love the most. From start to finish this book is one epic love letter to surfing and the ocean.

Here's the opening chapter to get you started

Running the Amazon
This one's for all the paddlers out there; Joe Kane's account of paddling the Amazon from source to sea is one of the maddest real-life adventures you'll ever read. All kinds of drama unfolds as a team of twelve paddlers, medics, writers, explorers (most of them strangers) attempt the impossible in one of the world's most hostile places.

Check out the opening chapter here

Eiger Dreams - Ventures Among Men & Mountains
To be fair, anything by Jon Krakauer is going to be amazing but his collection of essays on mountaineering and climbing is particularly good. The pick of the essays has to be 'On Being Tentbound' - it's about being trapped inside a tent for 10 days during bad weather and is especially poignant during isolation.

Here's an excerpt from Eiger Dreams

Shantaram
I haven't finished it yet so can't give a great review but you'll have to trust me - as far as novels go, this one's badass & I hope Netflix or HBO throw some money at it soon.

Here's a taster

We hope this guide is useful and fights off the boredom! 

Most importantly though, stay safe & stay positive 😃

Things will return to normal, things will get better. For now the best we can do is support each other inside and outside of our industry.
​

Portugal has been long famous as a holiday destination due to its incredible culture, delicious food and cosmopolitan cities. The Algarve especially has become one of Europe's most popular destinations amongst tourists and who can blame them?  The Algarve boasts amazing weather, beautiful beaches and wonderful friendly locals - but the thing that attracted us most is its stunning coast.

In the western Algarve, the area that we have come to know as home, we have the perfect conditions for coasteering. Stretching north from Sagres we have the wild & rugged west coast. We can't always go coasteering here due to the predominant north-west ocean swells hitting the shoreline, but every now and again, when the waves permit, this area provides phenomenal cliff jumping and awesome rock formations for climbing and exploring.

The South coast between Sagres and Lagos is equally stunning with small fishing villages such as Salema and sandy beaches. In the summer, the sea is often much calmer here and the shoreline is easy to explore. In most areas the rock is a soft sandstone making it incredibly difficult and dangerous for climbing, but between these areas there are much stronger bands of limestone into which the ocean has carved great caves and archways - the perfect playground for coasteering. The south coast is one of our favourite places to go coasteering in the Algarve.

Then there's the mid-coast of Sagres. The tip of the peninsula is surely one of the most beautiful coasts in Europe, if not the world. The cliffs are spectacular with plenty of hidden caves and coves and huge rocky platforms making in a cliff jumping paradise. The way that the land drops into the ocean here is really dramatic and it's easy to see how people once believed that this was the end of the world. Coasteering here is
awesome - you really get the feeling of being on an adventure in the wilderness.