The study, which will be published in Deco Proteste´s next magazine, looked at 40 surf schools across the country, a business that has “grown informally” and already brings in €400 million a year but is criticised because Deco believes that the businesses have contributed to the overcrowding of beaches which could potentially result in “accidents with swimmers happening”.


The article includes an interview with the president of the Portuguese Surfing Federation, an informal visit to 40 schools in eight representative areas of the country (Cascais, Costa de Caprica, Ericeira, Peniche, Nazare, Matosinhos, Figueira da Foz and Costa Vincentina), an activity that involves various entities, such as the Maritime Authority, the Authority for Food and Economic Security (ASAE), the Institute of Sport and Youth, the Ministry of the Environment, Tourism of Portugal and the Portuguese Surfing Federation.


Deco considers that “the multiplicity of entities responsible for regulating surf schools creates a confusing scenario” because “when responsibility is everyone´s it may be nobody´s and the effectiveness of the supervision is compromised, because there is a known limitation of means of the Maritime Police but also of ASAE, in one case to control the beach, in another to prevent the existence of illegal schools.”


“The inclusion of Turismo de Portugal in an already complex chess game, has allowed schools to obtain licenses as maritime-tour operators. But this license does not enable them to teach, only to rent material. Still they do and legislation that harmonises the rules are needed” argues Deco, considering that a starting point may be the bill presented by the Federation in the Assembly of the Republic in 2017, but which has not yet been developed.


In an interview with the president of the federation, João Jardim Aranha says that the growing interest in the surf business is due to “tourism and the ease of creating beach business” because “teaching surfing has become the last cherry on the cake in tourism and everybody wants it”.


“This is a beach business, it started with a group of uneducated teachers who went to the beach to teach but today surfing and golf are the two sports that most contribute to tourism in Portugal. There are more and more schools, more and more surf tourism and we have reached a point where what matters is that the experience is good in Portugal. It´s like the Secretary of State for Tourism said: “We don´t want more surf tourists to come, we want them to come, but to instead spend more” he said.


“We are looking forward to dealing with everyone, but we cannot leave the market as it is” he noted. The president of the federation considered that “enforcement is far from effective” largely due to the lack of clear legal context, as each captaincy establishes its rules, but the transfer of licensing to the Câmara will only improve the situation if there is a uniformity of rules”.


João Jardim Aranha argued that on certain beaches there should be a license limit. “There may be a time-sharing solution, a system already used in the Algarve where schools share a license. There is a timetable, which is divided throughout the day because no school gives classes 12 hours a day. It can be a way of regulating. “The sea is finite; there are not enough waves for everyone. There has to be coexistence at the beach. In the summer there are always more bathers and the beach is for everyone.”