Surf Summit participants highlight “exceptional conditions” of Ericeira

The third edition of the Surf Summit, an event that precedes the Web Summit, takes place this weekend in Ericeira, and the participants heard today highlight the exceptional conditions they found in Europe’s first surfing reserve.

“Yesterday [Saturday] I experienced surfing and today I’m going to do a ‘stand up paddle’ (SUP),” said German Bea, who is linked to a Fintech financial services company , and took advantage of the trip to the largest technological summit in the world to participate in the Surf Summit.

“It’s not the first time I’ve been to Portugal, but it’s the first time I’ve participated in the Web Summit and also in the Surf Summit,” he said, recommending participation in the next edition of this sporting event to all who have this possibility.

Brazil’s Luís Calado, who works for the North American multinational Survey Monkeys, is attending the Surf Summit for the second consecutive year, and for the third time at the Web Summit in Lisbon.

“We have the opportunity to contact professionals from all over the world. It is a great technology community,” he said, praising the “high quality of the organization” of these two distinct but related events.

According to Luis Calado, the Surf Summit is worth more for the “convivial” and for “relaxing”, while the Web Summit is the right place to develop professional skills, taking advantage of “conference excellence”.

After surfing on Saturday and living in the evening at the Surf Summit, which brought together people from all over the world, the Brazilian native of the coast of the State of São Paulo, Brazil, today opted for yoga.

Also because the low temperatures and, above all, the strong waves that are happening today on the beaches of Ericeira led the organization to cancel the surf lessons (for beginners to advanced levels).

“The sea today is very dangerous,” said Tiago Pires, the first Portuguese surfer to run the world circuit and is one of the Surf Summit ambassadors since its first edition in 2016, advising the approximately 250 participants to to opt for the other available activities: stand up paddle (SUP), bikes of all-terrain (MTB), hiking and yoga.

Jono and Beth Griffin, the Irish couple, are also in Ericeira this weekend in search of more radical adventures, before participating in the Web Summit that starts on Monday in Lisbon.

“It’s a very beautiful area, people are very kind and the food is very good,” said Jono Griffin, who surfed on Saturday in Ribeira d’Ilhas, one of Ericeira’s most iconic beaches.

“All this coast is special, let’s go back to the year,” Beth Griffin said.

The Surf Summit is the appetizer for the digital wave that will invade Lisbon from next Monday, and has high paintings of about one hundred companies of the most varied places in the world that, before participating in the Web Summit, will enjoy the outdoor activities in the fishing village located about 50 kilometers from the Portuguese capital.

Among those enrolled at the Surf Summit, there are executives from such diverse entities as Citibank, the European Central Bank, the European Commission, Microsoft, SAP, Columbia University or Youtube.

In addition to the sport, there is also the element of social interaction among participants between lunches, dinners and parties organized by Surf Summit, which animate day and night Ericeira, recognized in 2011 as World Surfing Reserve by the US organization ‘Save the Waves Coalition ‘.

And there is also room for lectures with live symbols of surf and bodyboarding, as is the case of the Portuguese Tiago ‘Saca’ Pires, the first Portuguese surfer to run the world circuit, and Joana Schenker, who last year became the first Portuguese athlete to win the title of world bodyboard champion.

But also a surfer and Californian model Anastasia Ashley, or the big wave surfers Hugo Vau and Garrett McNamara, the last world record holder who catapulted the North Beach in Nazaré to worldwide fame.

This year, the problem of plastics in the oceans will be highlighted in the debates that will take place on Sunday night.

Paddy Cosgrave, the co-founder of the Web Summit, was also in Ericeira, joining the mayor of Mafra, Hélder de Sousa Silva, in a meeting with reporters on Sunday morning at Praia da Foz do Lizandro.

The technological, innovation and entrepreneurship summit Web Summit was born in 2010 in Ireland and moved to Lisbon in 2016 and is expected to remain until 2028 at the Altice Arena (formerly Meo Arena) and the Lisbon International Fair (FIL) in Lisbon.

In this third edition of the event in Portugal, around