Peter & The Surf Office, Lisbon
Founder Peter Faber in front of the famous yellow surf board in The Surf Office, Lisbon
It all started as a joke with the Slovak Surfing Association, Peter Faber told me on our way to find some surf near his newly opened Surf Office in Lisbon. As a student he wanted to meet fellow surfers who lived in Slovakia – not exactly renowned for its surf culture or proximity to the green room. A few friends signed up to the Slovak Surfing Association Facebook group but then curiously the group just seemed to grow. Not actually with surfers but people who wanted to learn and kept asking for organized surf camps.
From this initial group the first surfcamps took place which, he chuckles, were fairly haphazard – including his role as surf instructor which he took on after serious training - by Youtube video! The surfcamps were not so much to make money but a fun way to get people together, to make friends and, of course, to surf.
Fast forward to California where he was working on a Google analytics style start-up and living in hackers' hostels – collective living/working spaces which were fairly unreliable and unprofessional. Sometimes you’d have a bed, perhaps the next night it would be the sofa.
Whilst the start-up didn’t work out it got him thinking about combining these two experiences of surfing and collective living and working but in a more professional way. And this is how The Surf Office was born in Gran Canaria, followed by a brief franchise experiment in California.
I stayed In The Surf Office in Lisbon which had just opened on August 15. It’s perfectly located just by the Cais de Sodre train station, from where the coastal train up to Cascais leaves. The closest surf spot, Carcavelos is only about 20 minutes away and costs just a few Euros: perfect if you don’t have a car. It’s also just by the Mercado de Ribeira, Time Out’s sponsored indoor market with a whole host of market style stalls serving delicious food and drinks.
Inside The Surf Office rooms are simple but clean, spacious and light with clean shared bathrooms/kitchens and the famous yellow surfboard dominating the shared work space. Whilst I was there I met a Californian author, a French sales exec taking time off to write his first novel and the whole gang of a French start-up on their bonding ‘away day’ starting with the mojito mixology class on a Friday afternoon!
Surf-sport in Guincho
Whilst I didn’t quite manage to get the yellow banana board off the walls for a surf, I did manage a few trips out on the tiny waves we had those few days with the legendary surf instructor Pedro Couto in Guincho & Carcavelos. We then headed off on a mini-road trip with Peter down to Sesimbra (note – take your own board as I couldn’t find a hire place so I was very miffed to have to stay on shore).
I loved The Surf Office concept and I really hope it takes off…
Now I'm looking forward to the first The Surf Office Meetup in London on 10th November. Even if we can't get to the waves, at least we can talk about them and take our minds off the long London winter days ahead….
SA in London