Surfing Ferrolterra

Beach Break · Best Year-round · 1-7 ft · Crowd 3/5

NW swell, SE offshore wind, low tide

Pantín is the best-known surf beach in Galicia and home of the Pantín Classic, a contest held here every year since the 1980s. It's a wide, open beach break facing the North Atlantic, with punchy peaks that work across a wide range of sizes.

It's more consistent than most of the sheltered Galician beaches, and there's a strong local scene, but by the standards of the bigger European surf towns it's rarely crowded.

It works on most north-west swells and is usually best around low tide with a south-easterly wind. The water is cold all year, and many local surfers wear a 4/3 even in summer.

Valdoviño, the nearest town, has a campsite, surf schools and rural houses, and Ferrol is about twenty minutes away. In late summer, during the Pantín Classic, the beach and the town get busy. The rest of the year the line-up is relaxed, and if Pantín is too big, A Frouxeira and Doniños are close by.

Beach Break · Best Year-round · 1-5 ft · Crowd 2/5

WNW swell, E offshore wind, low tide

Doniños is a long beach near Ferrol, with a freshwater lagoon behind it that's a nature reserve full of birds. It's a beach break, usually best at low tide on a west-north-west swell with an east wind.

It's a bit gentler than Pantín up the coast, so it suits improvers, and on smaller days it's a good alternative when Pantín is too heavy.

It's one of the easier beaches around Ferrol, with surf schools in summer. Autumn and winter bring more swell. Ferrol is about fifteen minutes away, and Pantín and Valdoviño are a short drive north.

Beach Break · Best Year-round · 1-7 ft · Crowd 3/5

NW swell, SE offshore wind, low tide

A Frouxeira is the long beach in front of Valdoviño, a few kilometres from Pantín, with a lagoon behind the dunes. It's open to every north-west swell, so there are waves most of the year.

There are peaks along the whole beach, best at low tide with a south-east wind. It's more forgiving than Pantín on small days, which makes it the local learning beach, but it gets powerful when the swell is up.

Watch for rips near the rocks at the ends of the beach.