Hey,

Just thought I’d give a bit of feedback about our recent trip to the Abrolhos.

Mother Nature seemed to look kindly upon us for this trip with wind the whole weekend and 4.5m of swell. The wind favoured the windsurfers a bit more than what my 7m would have liked but was still comfortable.

The islands have literally hundreds of breaks; you’d always be able to find a cross-off wave (in either a SE, S or SW) if you had a few months to explore the whole place. Awesome set-ups, clean wind, massive sharks. The breaks we sailed were pretty fat but steep enough to get some good turns in. A pitching break would have completed the trip. We did find a flat-water equivalent to Woodies that’s 50x bigger and if you had a small boat available, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better spot.

Launching off the top-deck of a 90 foot boat that’s swinging 45 degrees in 25-30 knots of wind, 35m of water and 4.5m swell is no easy feat and not really recommended. As these breaks weren’t close to any form of land, it was our only choice.

There was one rescue when a chicken rope broke; if there wasn’t a small dingy on board, he probably would have made it to one of the islands a few km away (if he didn’t get taken by sharks (yes there are a few) or shallow reef before that!)

Great fishing, great diving, when the winds aren’t blowing, there’d be some awesome surfing, but as a kiting destination, not for the faint hearted.

All in all, waves were pretty good, but the location made it a top trip.

i went over on one of the carrier boats when i was a local poley in gero, the windsurfing club used to organise them all the time.
We sailed a place called wardrobes (think it was called that anyway) where it is a reef with no land to see in sight and the wave starts dead onshore then wraps around to eventually be near offshore. so many turns you get tired!!
we left hells and it was near flat and it was a solid shoulder over there.
i then found out it is a regular shark fishing/hunting area.
Aparently since the tuna has been fished out in the area the sharks are just comin right in around the islands looking for food...
so yeh have been a little hesitant to go back.