Foz do Lizandro – Surf & Travel Guide

Foz do Lizandro is one of the best all-level surf beaches in the area of Ericeira, which surely makes it among the best in the whole of Portugal. And, by extension, Portugal.

It’s got so much going for it. The face of the beach angles ever so slightly northwest, picking up reliable long-fetch swells across a wide variety of directions – anything from southwest to northwest works. The bay is shaped by a river, the Rio Lizandro, which crafts very good sandbank shapes. And it works on pretty much all tides.

What’s really made Foz do Lizandro so popular is the fact that it’s a great place for beginners and improvers on smaller swell days. The summer brings them in abundance. Things in the 2-6 foot range are perfect, because the whole beach is sand-bottomed and the waves are the very definition of fun surfing – slow pockets, peeling walls, nice whitewash for complete novices.

It’s likely that this will be your go-to spot if you come to Ericeira for a surf camp as a beginner.

Bigger swells do come, of course, and when they do Foz do Lizandro can fire off some really good left hander beach breaks, with the rivermouth banks working best, sometimes even hollowing out.

On top of all that, lovely like Foz, as most of the locals call it, is a downright gorgeous beach. It’s buttressed by high cliffs of sandstone and has a small village of whitewashed homes tucked into its side.

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Read more about the top surf spots in Portugal

Surfing at Foz do Lizandro

I reckon Foz do Lizandro is one of the best places for lower intermediates in Portugal. It’s also great for beginners and more advanced surfers but the sweet spot is the people who are off the whitewash and getting into punchier green waves.

I say that because it’s all sand bottomed. Much of Ericeira – especially the famous World Surfing Reserve on the north side of town – relies on quite sharp, shallow reef shelves to give its epic waves. Not here. Foz do Lizandro is more of a classic Silver Coast beachie with multiple banks to spread out the crowd.

It’s important to note that when people talk about the beginner-friendly, lower-intermediate aspect of Foz do Lizandro, they’re talking about the 250 meters or so of the beach that runs between the rivermouth and the first set of reefs to the north.

As you head north, there are two more named spots (see below) and the sand drops away, so you’ll be surfing on rock reef and cobblestone. It’s not that the waves there are MUCH harder. They aren’t. But they are more suited to upper intermediates and advanced surfers because they are largely right-handers, so you need to know how to do down-the-line surfing, and do get a bit more size than the beach breaks.

The beach section at Foz do Lizandro has PLENTY to keep you going, though. As I mentioned, the bit you’re looking for runs between the rivermouth and about where the cliffs start to the north. It’s usually packed with sandbanks of all different sizes that will offer varying waves on different tides. The whole lot tends to be a bit hollower at low tide and fatter and slower at high, which is what you’d expect, though full-full tide isn’t that great in Foz IMO.

Waves are lefts and rights, with better lefts on SW swells and more A-frame shape to things on NW swells. The rivermouth at the south end of the bay does get rippy if the size gets up, so watch out for that. If you’re confident enough to try it, I’ve seen some really great left handers work for about 100-meter rides there.

Limipicos

Limipicos is for more advanced surfers only. That’s not so much because it’s a hard, hard wave. It’s not that bad. It’s more because the paddle out is long and tricky.

At lower tides (though not full low, because the spot doesn’t work then), you can walk a bit north along Foz de Lizandro and then start making your way over the sets to the point where you see a finger-like stretch of rock reef poking out to see. That’s Limipicos.

It breaks almost like a point on the reefs there, which can be shallow so watch your feet, and peels into the bay, offering semi-long rights that can be nice and workable. Small days here can be fun for improvers who don’t mind the paddle since it will cut the crowd factor down big time. Bigger days it tend to just max out real easy.

Works best on mid to higher tide, which necessitates that long paddle around.

Lage dos Tubos

Lage dos Tubos is the name for the bit of Foz de Lizandro beach that runs under the cliff on its north side. I often see the beginner crews floating up this way and it’s not ideal because somewhere, about 20 meters past the first cliffs, reefs take over from sand underfoot.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be a bit of a shock to a surfer who’s not surf reefs before and came expecting the easiest spot in Ericeira. The wave itself is real nice though – a zippy little right that can be very fun for improving intermediate surfers who are looking to graduate to reef.

It works best on higher tides, when there’s enough water on the reef to fatten up the wave a bit. As the water drops, you might get a few small tube sections, so watch out for those.