A bit like adventurers looking for a virgin land, a bit like mountaineers looking for a new peak to climb, there is us, the Manera team, looking for spots and conditions to do what we do best, gliding on the ocean.

We are all aware of the mission that has been entrusted to us and we are all ready to take it on, but will nature and the elements be with us this year?

Even if the goal is, of course, to bring back good shots for the new collection, what motivates us is different, we are a group of friends, riders, and our passion is boardsports.

The doors of the van slam, the engine start to purr, it is on, Galicia, here we come. This time no camper van, but good old tents and a sleeping bag. It is my 5th trip with Manera and I know what to expect, it is roots but it is what makes the charm of these trips.

"It's a bit as if the memories remain engraved longer when you remove a little comfort."

The journey is long from Montpellier to the Spanish border, we still make a small stop by the Basque Country to stretch the legs before attacking the Spanish roads. All the team is in full swing, this year Hendrick and Marcela joined us, it's cool to see new faces and to share these moments together.

I'm in the equipment truck with Mallo, behind, Julo's van follows us with Olivier, Matt, Marcela, and Maxime completes the convoy with Hendrick as co-driver.

Before leaving the forecasts were not really... exciting, but this is the adventure, we are there, so we might as well go check it out with our own eyes. We stop on a first spot, in Ferrol. The parking lot overhangs a bay and the wind blows already around 20 knots, what a beautiful welcome gift.

A thing which I learned during the trips it is that you must make the most of every conditions you get, we’ll have a rest when we’ll be back home.

We decide to cut the session in two not to have too many riders on the same spot: first strapless, then twintip. The excitement to go to water is too strong, I have more and more difficulty to contain myself, I end up going to the other end of the bay not to disturb anybody. The session is crazy, the wind is dense, the jumps are long, I want it to last forever. Everybody has a smile on his face, the trip starts really well.

The small camping of Ferrol welcomes us and allows us to spend a rather correct night. The cook shows us her menu of frozen pizzas and her famous 7 quesos, unique meal.

One thing also that I learned is that it’s hard to have a proper meal in the evening, as the sunset is always the best time to shoot. So, we always find ourselves looking for a restaurant open at 10-11 pm.

The next day, we’re back on the road and we go down towards the south. The Spanish coast is vast, and we are only at the beginning.

Our smiles fade a little when we spend more time driving than riding, but it is part of the game. We arrive at the end of the afternoon on the beach of Nemina, the place is just magnificent, offshore wind, great light and a sloping road which leads to the spot are a little like an invitation. We MUST shoot!

"Offshore wind, great light and a sloping road which leads to the spot are a little like an invitation…"

The bay further south looks like a great surf kite wave, the wind is very gusty, but the waves are beautiful. Mallo, Marcela and Hendrick score multiple good waves. Not easy to surf when the gust hits your kite right during the top-turn, it is purely a game of luck. We forced ourselves to shoot some kiting because the wind forecast doesn’t look so appealing in the next days. I must admit, that with Max, we would have been happy to go out on the water in Nemina. It doesn't matter, next time! We take advantage of the show offered by the wave team and the sunset on the beach, which is also very nice.

Every evening, we plant our tents where we can and especially, we try to find something to eat. The advantage in Spain, it is that they eat very late. Every diner is a good time to debrief what happened during the day, have a few cervezas and put good food in our stomach.

I didn't know Galicia, I must admit that it's really beautiful, even if it's less exotic than a trip by plane at the other end of the world. The cliffs, the rocks, the wild landscapes, make this little corner of Spain quite unique.

I share my tent with Mallo, we quickly became camping pros, as we slept in a different place every night, that meant disassembling and reassembling the tent every day. The more the trip went forward and the more we all considered sleeping in the board-bags at the back of the van, but the smell of humidity and wet neoprene wasn’t so inviting.

The mornings are fresh, and it is hard to exit the sleeping bag, it feels warm inside.

We keep driving towards south. We will be joined by a new member of the Manera team, Roby D'amico, an Italian pro surfer. It’s a first on a Manera trip, I am delighted, because it means that we are going to have to find surf spots.

Roby has a communicative good mood; I’ve known him for a day, and I like him already. He comes to bring freshness and especially a different vision, I love it. We found a spot with a beach break, because the wave of Nemina is certainly magnificent, but a little too flat for radical maneuvers. The current is very strong and the conditions hyper changing, not easy to shoot.

"Robby comes out with a smile on his face, he had a good wave, that's enough for him to be happy."

The wind seems definitely gone for good here, we decide to go for a freestyle session in the south, almost at the border of Portugal, on the beach of Cesantes. The locals confirm us that there’s a thermal wind picking up every afternoon, but on the road a huge black cloud grows, I wrote on the group chat: "You guys also see the black cloud?” We know it will disturb the wind, but we go for it, pedal to the metal, we’ll make it and quickly put on the boots.

The spot is more less wild than up north with an enormous bridge in the backgroud, but it has a strong freestyle potential with a small offshore island providing flat water. Max and I hurry up, and we leave on the water with our 13m WTF. The wind is, as we say, “asthmatic”. The big black cloud disturbs the wind, so that every fifteen minutes it falls to 0 and then comes back again.

We found ourselves with both kites in the water, with nothing to do but looking at each other. And then as soon as the wind came back, we had time to do a few tricks. We really did our best to put on a show, it’s hard enough to ride with a 13m2, underpowered, it was not simple! Fortunately, Max is there to save the session and he landed good doubles.

At the end of the afternoon, the sun is hidden by the clouds and the darkness forces us to put down our kites and to pack up everything.

We then began to go back up north; other spots are waiting for us on the way. We stopped on the Soesto beach to surf mainly, and waves are really cool. The place is perfect to camp, our local guides took time to show us some Galician traditions and alcohol.

It's crazy how each culture has its own alcohol, whether it's Brittany, Russia, Scotland… over the MANERA trips we always found ourselves tasting something different. And always surrounded by people that are happy to share their traditions, knowledge, and spots.

" Well, this one was very, very strong! "

But the Galician poems and the ignited alcohol before drinking made the moment unique. The language barrier was kind of problematic, but as always, we adapted and managed to communicate, especially after a few drinks.

The mornings are harder and harder, and the rain begins to show up… The noise it makes on the tents roof is kind of nice when falling asleep, but when it’s time to wake up in the morning it’s not really inviting to go outside.

We found a small bay to surf foil on the way home. The wind definitely left us, and we’ll only be surfing every day on the way to France. Surfing with Robby allows us to get more experience from of a pro surfer, the positioning and vision of a spot. Our last session will be in Santander, in waves far from perfect, but it was good to be in the water after all that driving.

There is no perfect trip when you play with mother nature, you can make all the plans B in the world if it does not want to cooperate, it is useless.

This trip will have been once again a beautiful lesson of life and an adventure with incredible athletes.

The freedom that inhabits us for fifteen days is somewhat exhilarating and it is hard to come back to reality sometimes, only the fatigue catches up with us.

"We could have been mistaken for pilgrims, after all this trip is close to a pilgrimage."

As the saying goes "walk with your heart and not with your head", what better way to illustrate this than a group of enthusiasts in search of the ultimate conditions.

The false pilgrims have a name in the region, they are called "coquillards", that's us, the coquillards of Manera!

Paul Serin