Tofinho point-break comes to life but… quickly evaporates!
After a short day of rest, the wind shifted to the south! We were by the point at Tofinho at 7am. It was small and perfect, 2 to 3 feet waves were coming in, super clean and side off. The forecast was giving a major increase in the swell by midday so we decided to wait and come back at the right time. At 11 o’clock sharp, Thomas was catching his first logo high right-hander of the trip. Right after the drop he pulled out an air flying over the barrel section. Landing it clean with lots of speed he went for a frontside 360° and nailed it. There was one more section remaining and there he went for a Taka on the close out section! How many points was this ride? How focussed and committed must Thomas have been to do all this on his first wave? Well, it’s up to you to judge as we have no shots of it. I was still running for my photo gear while Jules was rigging…Both of us were tripping though saying that it was just too good to be true. Five minutes later it was raining cats and dogs and the wind kind of died! Of course we came back later on in the afternoon when the rain stopped, but the wind swell had somehow chased away the south groundswell, and a strong current going down the line from the point was flattening the waves. The boys sailed for 3 hours in a row and Thomas still managed to pull out some perfect front side 360’s and airs but nothing like his first wave…
The following days were quite the same scenario. With Tofinho point giving a pale figure of its true world class potential we decided to try our luck somewhere else. And even though it wasn’t epic we kind of still scored: one good session at Praia da Barra and another one in Praia da Tofo.
Barra is a huge and beautiful white sand beach facing north-east. As the south wind was blowing side-off we chose to sail by the middle of the beach where the wind was the strongest. The sand banks were really good on high tide and the wind swell was producing some nice A-frame peaks. The boys were ‘back-dooring’ the peak and then flying down the line. Both riders seemed to be having a lot of fun riding those beauties and I was truly boiling with envy behind my camera – those were perfect conditions for me as well! I love it when it is side off and clean with fun size waves! But I had to admit that to watch the boys shredding and to immortalize it on shots was worth the pain. Getting out of the water their first words were: “Man it was so cool to be only the two of us on such quality waves! But we don’t even want to think of how this spot must look like with a true south east swell.” Tofo on the other hand, was just a kind of farewell session. Tofo is the main “tourist beach village” around with lots of lodge and hotels facing a beautiful white sand bay. The art and local food market being also just a stone’s throw from the beach. It’s also the place where the night life is going on. Starting with a good seafood plate in one of the many local restaurants and then heading to Tofo main hotel for a concert of local music was our plan at least twice a week. And there of course we met with all the local and visiting surfers around, testing the Mozambican beers and dancing while the moonlight was lighting up the sea surface from the bay.
Speaking of waves, Praia da Tofo offers a punchy shore break at high tide and a long soft right hander at low tide. The boys scored the low tide. They said it was nice and looking at the goiters and airs they managed to land I can believe it! On their way back to the car they were surrounded by all the local surfer kids checking their windsurfing equipment. Like every day since the beginning of the trip, they were trying to sell us bags of cashew-nuts or delicious homemade local donuts shaped like a shell. And like every day, we bought some to please them. When we told them that we were now leaving for our country they simply shook hands with us not asking for any special gift or anything. After all it was them who were staying in paradise.