ONE DAY W/ DIOGO APPLETON & NICK PUMPHREY
ONE DAY w/ DIOGO APPLETON & NICK PUMPHREY
Amigo, surf, shape, photos & pastel de nata.
Words & Photography by : Nick Pumphrey
Film by : Filipe Neto
""One Day in the Portuguese West
Rewind to January 2016 and a Cornish winter coated in sweet drizzle(Cornish rain). It was time to plan a strike mission to a land of happy people,sunshine and an assortment of ocean lumps.
For a while it had been on my mind to get my old Portuguese mate Diogo Appleton to apply his young skills into creating a new wave riding sled for myself.
Instead of trying to teach Diogo how to send me the board i figured i would get down there and hang out with the man,watch my board being made and generally just float about on the West coast eating many Pastel di Nata's washed down with fine 1 Euro coffees!
After not too much thinking flights were booked and i was greeted with 25 degree weather upon arrival. For those of you who have not visited the fine shores of Portugal it is a must on the to do list. Good weather most of the year and alls sorts of curvy coastlines result in all sorts of waves for all sorts of wave riding craft. The people are pretty much as nice as you could ask for and the local seafood is damn tasty and cheap as chips.
After indulging in a few of the mentioned above, plans were made to meet up at Carcavelos to spend a day with Diogo. Filipe (Filming wizard) came to pick me up and we went to a little cafe to meet....... Diogo is not a morning person,he is not so punctual and doesn't really understand being on time. But that's cool,it's Portugal,life is laid back here,it's part of the charm of it all. He rolls in about an hour later,giggling and ready for a quick paddle in the waist to shoulder high low tide zippers! Diogo makes surfing look easy. High lines and carves with a Machadoesque Style on his trusty 5ft Wonderfish by his amigo Mr Munn.
This is exactly the kind of board i would like but with a bit more length as i am a stretched human with nicknames like ‘HighTower’ . Templates done and soon after the birth of my soon to be glassed 5ft3 sled of fun! I get to hold it and imagine myself riding it before i have to fly back to the Cornish winter and trust that Diogo will be able to send it to me once it’s glassed and ready for action.
Diogo is too busy surfing/shaping/pastel di nata munching and coffee drinking to figure out DHL and other couriers so my buddy Matty Snelling goes down for a Portuguese jolly to hang with him and enjoy the pleasures of Portugal…. He has an ace time as you do, and brings my little glassed 5ft3 wonderful fish back home to Cornwall. I love her,we have a great relationship,i can’t surf like i do in my minds eye but it goes very very fast and i like that! ""
