‘Portuguese Extol’ was originally published in Volume XIII, December 2023
Words by Josh Barrow & photography by Alex Papke
When it comes to skate trips the Portugal formula just works. We’re lucky to know the best guide to grace this earth who doubles up as the finest chauffeur on the Iberian peninsula. Pedro Raimundo, aka Surge Mag, is as kind as he is knowledgeable and will always make sure you get the job at hand done.
The Portuguese weather? Always sunny and for the most part, hot, but not too hot. The prices? They average at pretty much half of everywhere else in Europe. Spots? A plethora of them; I’ve lost count of the trips made to the capital, and each time we’re continuously graced with new untouched zones. A large portion of them also have sea views, meaning post work swims. The food? Fresh fish, crab, lobster, and any meats you desire at a bargain rate. The number of professional skateboarders who’ve either moved out there or invested in property over the years is testament to just how fucking great Portugal truly is.
Globe recently launched a new skateboarding programme and in turn, there’s been some big changes including newcomers to the team, which they wanted to bring together. The following represents the few days filming for upcoming video parts off the back of Austyn’s pro shoe launch party at POP Skate Shop through Alex Papke’s trusty lens:
Alex Furtado skates for FORMER through the European distributor and following a trip last year to Germany and Poland together, Austyn also put him on Globe to fly the flag in Portugal (where he’s from). For this trip on home soil, he simply packed his bag and walked the ten minutes down the road to our Airbnb and stayed for the week, making sure it felt like a proper team trip for his first.
We started skating this rail when it was still daylight…Alex must have tried this at least 50 times and before we knew it, night had completely fallen. All the local crew started showing up in the street with beers to watch and support, 20 strong, people were all there cheering, stopping cars and picking him back up after each try. We then celebrated at a local restaurant with seafood platters of handpicked crab and bottomless Super Bocks.
This was also Val Bauer’s first Globe trip, getting on just a few weeks prior. This was the first day, straight out the van. He had this under his belt within half an hour. The man is sober and exists on a diet of mostly cigarettes and coca-cola when he’s in the field, but healthy meals and early(ish) nights clearly pay off for this Frenchman’s productivity.
The square where this spot was found had only very recently been finished, and Pedro told us people had only tried to skate it once, so technically this was the first thing to really go down there. In true Portuguese style, setups don’t get much better. There was a café that sold both caffeine and alcohol in equal measures, all with the usual Portuguese rates we know and love. In the background, there was a seating area where an older crowd congregated to play cards and drink wine, completely oblivious that there was anything else going on in the world. Even when the cops showed up to boot us, they let Austyn get the goods before moving us on…
