Your surf week, with a whole house for your group.

No. Groups are split by level, not thrown together — never more than five surfers to an instructor, so a first-timer and someone working on their bottom turn are not in the same session waiting on each other. Complete beginners are welcome, and so are intermediate and advanced surfers who want coaching, video and someone who knows which beach to be at on the day. Lessons are taught in Portuguese, English or Spanish, by instructors certified by the Portuguese Surfing Federation (Federação Portuguesa de Surf).

Almost certainly not. Surfing punishes impatience far more than it punishes age — the paddling gets easier within days, and a coach’s job is to put you on waves that suit what your shoulders can do now, not to run a bootcamp. If you can swim and you are in ordinary health, this week is for you. If you have an injury or a condition you are unsure about, say so in the form and we will give you a straight answer rather than a brochure one.

Then we go somewhere else — and that is the whole reason this particular place works. Peniche is a peninsula pushed out into the Atlantic, with coastlines facing several directions at once. When one side is unmanageable, another is calm. We read the forecast every morning and choose the beach for the group, not for the photograph, and you will never be paddled out into something you should not be in. Saying no to a beach is part of the job, not a failure of the day.

Not remotely, and you will not be the first. Anyone in your group who doesn’t surf stays in the house for free and joins everything except the lessons — the coast, the town, the meals, the evenings. Paid extras, like the Nazaré day, are priced per person if they want to come. Some people surf every single session; some surf twice and read for the rest of the week. Both are a good week, and nobody keeps score. In the booking form, just count them as guests and not as surfers.

All ages — we teach everyone. The surf school takes children from five, and as a rule anyone under twelve is taught in private lessons, because at that age a coach’s full attention is the safety margin rather than a luxury. The price of the camp does not change: a child who surfs counts as one surfer, like anyone else. Tell us the ages in the form either way and we will say honestly whether the week you are looking at is the right one.

Three ways, all straightforward. Drive — about an hour north, and a car is genuinely useful for chasing beaches on your own time. Bus — direct from the airport to Peniche terminal in roughly an hour and ten minutes for about €10, run by Rede Expressos, Citi Express and FlixBus; from the terminal it is a five-minute local bus or a taxi of around €15 to Baleal. Us — add the airport transfer in the booking form and we collect you door to door, €150 each way per van.

At the Marlin House you are staying in. We come to you on the first day, and every morning after that we tell you which beach the day belongs to.

Warmer than you are expecting, and no — a 4/3 full suit, which is ours, not something you need to buy. The sea off Peniche averages 17.7 °C in November. That is warmer than it is here in May, and more than three degrees warmer than March. People booking from northern Europe assume November means winter water; on this coast it does not, because the Atlantic gives the summer’s heat back slowly.

What November genuinely costs you is weather, not water: it is the wettest month of the year here — around 104 mm spread over roughly thirteen days — with air between 12 and 17 °C. What it gives back is the best swell of the year, because November is the start of the surf season proper, a town with almost nobody in it, and the lowest rate we charge. Sea temperatures are NOAA satellite averages for Peniche; wetsuits, boots and boards are included in every lesson, whatever the month.

You get wet slightly ahead of schedule. You are going into the sea in a wetsuit either way, and rain does nothing at all to a surf forecast — some of the best sessions of the year happen under grey sky. Even in the wettest month it rarely rains all day here; it comes through in bands and moves on. What actually stops a session is wind, and wind is precisely what a peninsula with two coastlines is for. If a day is genuinely written off, we move the session rather than cancel it: your six lessons belong to the week, not to fixed days.

Between October and April, very unlikely — that is when the Atlantic is working. In the quietest part of summer the ocean can go small for a day or two, which is exactly what the surfskate session, the rest of the coast and the Nazaré day are there for. Worth knowing that small water is friendly water: a flat forecast is usually good news if you are learning, and only disappointing if you already surf well. If it is truly unrideable we move your lesson to another day in the week.

No. Boards, wetsuits, leashes and wax are ours and are included in every lesson. Outside the lessons they are not included: if you want to surf on your own, you rent them from us at 30% off, all week. Bring swimwear, a towel, sunscreen and warm clothes for the evenings — the mornings out of the water are colder than the water. If you own a board you love, bring it. If you do not, please do not buy one before the week: you will know far more about what actually suits you after seven days than before them.

In: seven nights in a house that is your group’s alone, and for each surfer six coached surf lessons, one surfskate session, boards and wetsuits for every lesson, 30% off rental for free surfing, a drone film of your best waves, and the coaching and beach-picking every day. Not in: flights, your meals, and the optional extras — the Nazaré day, the jetski tour, yoga, jiu-jitsu, the airport transfer and the photo package. Every one of those is priced openly on this page and none is added unless you ask for it.

The price is per surfer for the whole week, with the house in it, and it is lower per surfer the bigger the group. A three-bedroom house takes up to six guests, a two-bedroom four. Seven or eight of you need two houses, priced on request. A week that spans two seasons takes the season of most of its nights, and the week of 31 December is priced as New Year.

A surf camp is confirmed by a deposit equal to the price of the house. The deposit is non-refundable, but it can be moved once to another free week, up to 30 days before your original arrival. The rest is paid up to 14 days before arrival, when the number of surfers becomes final. Bank transfer, MB WAY and PayPal all work. Nothing is charged on this website — you send the enquiry, we talk, and only then does anything get paid.

If you cancel the whole camp, the deposit is kept and anything paid for surf packages is refunded up to 14 days before arrival. The deposit is non-refundable, but it can be moved once to another free week, up to 30 days before your original arrival. If some of the group drop out and the rest still come, each surf package given up is refunded up to 14 days before arrival, as long as at least three surfers remain; below three, the full price of a camp for three surfers is still due. The price per surfer depends on the size of the group: if the group gets smaller, the price is adjusted.

Every week of the year, Monday to Monday — the live calendar is in the booking form above, and a week that is already taken simply shows as booked. Each house goes to one group only: a family, a group of friends, two or three couples travelling together, from three surfers up. There are no bunk rooms and we never put people who don’t know each other in a room together, so the house is always yours alone. More than one group can be here in the same week, each in its own house. For one or two surfers, our surf lessons are the way in.

Yes. The camps run Monday to Monday because it fits the way the week is taught, but if your dates do not line up, or you want something built around your group, message us on WhatsApp. We answer quickly and we will put something together with you.