Vintage Tours

Text: Paulo Galvão | Photo: Vintage Tours | Translator: João Diogo Rocha Pereira

This is not a surf school

With the growth of the surf industry in Ericeira, mainly in the last two years, there are a lot of businesses that have emerged related to the waves and the surf culture.

This is the case of Vintage Tours, which, since this June, organises tourist rides along our coast, providing a different service, starting on the way that its customers are transported. The project comes from the bond between three passions: classic automobiles, travels and surfing, whereas much of the inspiration came from the photographer LeRoy Grannis, who in his compositions brought together surfing (as a lifestyle) and automobile models that are part of common imaginary, such as the ‘bread-loaf’ or the ‘beetle’.

“One day I went to Lisbon, I noticed a ‘bread-loaf’ van that was up for sale and, as I’m a lover of these cars, I ended buying it. Afterwards, me and my girlfriend started having some rides around the country”, André Falcão tells us. That’s when he and his girlfriend noticed that there was plenty of supply of surf-related tours, but there was none with these kind of vehicles. And so they decided to create a different product, directed mainly to surfers who visit Ericeira, where the company is based.

The project comes from the bond between three passions: classic automobiles, travels and surfing.

It is with a 1971 Volkswagen Van and a Citroën 2 CV that André and his longtime friend Edgar Barbosa (both surfers) run this business, based in two types of service: the Cultural Tours, an option available for every person, surfer or not, with trips to Cascais, Sintra and Lisbon; and the Surf Tours which are essentially surf trips along the coasts of Ericeira, Peniche or Carcavelos. The idea is to explore another type of surfing spots that are not the most acknowledged ones, depending on the sea conditions and time available, with travels provided in picturesque vehicles, offering unforgettable days of freedom. These are small groups of people that surf along the way and have some rests in the meantime, with a picnic composed by the region’s specialties provided to them. According to André Falcão, “the objective is that in the future a significant share of clients arrive to Portugal with the service already purchased. In this Summer of 2013 there was quite a lot of work, where 100% of customers were foreigners, who were staying mainly in surf camps but also in apartments and hotels.

The future may account for further partnerships with companies from Ericeira [thus far they highlight the work carried in collaboration with Magic Quiver and Vira Latas] and the expansion of the number of available vehicles, which gives a special touch to the whole experience, even by the slower and smooth pace of the trips.