When it comes to Bodyboard Lessons and Guiding days, Boogietrips tries to keep its groups small and also to be able to surf any beach wished for, whilst respecting the local crowds.

We know every possible break on the coastline, including the expertise to know exactly which tide, swell and wind direction works best for each spot.

We are aware of all the dangers that can occur on each beach and know where the best place to position yourself in the line-up to catch waves is.

We use all this knowledge to make your experience hassle free, guiding you in and out of the water.

On a 5-day beginner course we start of the first lesson with a warm up and stretching session then go through the theory, were we discuss the basics; like how to handle a body board, introduction to duck dives and basic position on the board and how to use your fins to generate propulsion.

 After your first lesson, we get a sense of how comfortable you feel on your board and in the water. We keep giving you daily goals and feedback to improve at your own pace. We believe that it is important not to overwhelm you with too much information at once, so that progress can take place.

After your 5-day Body board Course is completed, you will already be able to surf green unbroken waves and start to really feel comfortable in The Ocean.

It is our aim to transform total newbies to the sport into autonomous bodyboarders.

We also help people that already know the basics of bodyboarding but wish to improve on moves that they might want to work on or learn like; 360 spins, tube riding, rolls, backflips, inverts, drop knee amongst others. In order to achieve this, we often use video analysis and attempt these moves on specific waves, that make them easier to accomplish and teach you special exercises that help you understand the movements you have to do in the water.

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The project was founded in 2016 by Portuguese local pro Bodyboarder Nicolas Rosner with the desire to share with everyone his vision of what a bodyboard trip should be all about.

Boogie Trips is based all year round in the Sintra district of Lisbon, which means the Portugal Coaching camps and the daily Bodyboard Guiding trips take place anywhere from Costa da Caparica to Carcavelos through to Sintra, Ericeira and all the way up to Peniche and Nazaré.

Our regular bodyboard lessons usually take place on the beaches between Sintra , Cascais and Ericeira.

There are so many amazing little beaches few people know about on this coastline, that you would unlikely find on your own.

Our aim at Boogie Trips whenever wave conditions allow, is to share super fun uncrowned waves with everyone. To also be able to show some of the local culture between sessions and take you to enjoy some of the most amazing affordable traditional restaurants you won’t find on Trip Advisor.

At the end of your trip you will leave Portugal with a good sense of what daily life is all about for a local bodyboarder. 

 The Winter season is from October to the end of April. This is when  the first big swells arrive. The winds stay offshore longer and this opens up the chance to surf some more sheltered waves that rarely work in the Summer months.

We organise a bodyboard holiday trip to the Algarve and usually end up in Sagres, to score some world-class wedges, and if the swell is really big, we drive further inland down towards Faro.

Every year in November we travel to the stunning Portuguese islands of the Azores, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Since our first trip in 2016, we have really grown to love these unspoiled islands.

Life doesn’t really get much better then Chilling in a 39-degree volcanic hot spring in the evening, after spending all day surfing, eating some of the best seafood in the world and reviewing the videos and photos of our daily Adventures.

In January, we kick off the year with a Boogie trip to the most Sothern sub-tropical Portuguese island of Madeira, to escape the cold European Winter. A One-week action packed trip to an island, that is still very underrated and has lots to explore with regards to waves.

We stay in a colonial style eco-friendly mansion, with a large private tropical garden, right on the beach. While surfing, you are surrounded by huge vertical cliffs that really give a sense of being in a faraway place on earth.

Our goal with Boogie Trips is to grow sustainably. We tend to keep our groups small and use local knowledge and resources whenever we can. We really want to keep providing authentic experiences to our customers and friends.

To conclude; all our trips are carefully prepared, and our new destinations are selected with regard to our customers, which means they are the ones that vote if the trip should keep happening every year or not.

Check out our bodyboard holidays in Portugal:

Lisbon Coast Bodyboard Holidays

Bodyboard Holidays in the Azores

Bodyboard Holidays in Madeira

Bodyboard Holidays in The Algarve

We also have a bodyboard school near Lisbon

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Well let’s put it this way; The Lisbon Coastline could very well be one of the most consistent places, not only in Europe but in the world, as a bodyboarding destination.

With just a 30-minute drive away from central Lisbon, you have the West Coast, which picks up every bit of swell the Atlantic Ocean throws at it. From Praia do Guincho to Praia Grande in Sintra and all the way up to Santa Cruz, there are many good beach breaks, which are rarely flat during the entire year.

Looking to score some world class Reef Breaks? Ericeira has been distinguished as a World Surf reserve for very good reason. With long barrelling point breaks to hollow slabs all the way to beginner reef breaks, there is so much variety of good waves in and around this old fishing town. It is amazing!

When the Swell maxes out on the West coast, which happens more during the winter months, you have got the river mouth beaches on the Cascais Coastline (a short 15 minute drive away from central Lisbon). You will find Praia de Carcavelos, a world class hollow beach break, that is often compared to Puerto Escondido in Mexico.

For more advanced Bodyboarders, when the swell is really maxing out everywhere, other waves like in Paço d´Darcos “light up”, a left hand wedge that breaks right next to a wall with the iconic 25 de Abril bridge in background, which makes for wonderful view.

Cross the bridge to the south of Lisbon and you will get to Costa da Caparica and Sesimbra. A long stretch of beaches divided by jetties, which make for some good wedges and are often more sheltered from onshore winds and bigger swells.

I couldn’t end this article without mentioning the Peniche Peninsula, which is about a 1-hour drive from Lisbon and is home to beaches, like the world class wave of Supertubes or Baleal. Peniche has the advantage of always having a favourable wind on any given day.

A bit further north of Peniche lies Nazaré, which is now a well-known spot for big wave surfing Go there on days with light winds and you will get rewarded with quality surf.

All these places mentioned above mostly within about an hour’s drive from Lisbon . If you don’t want to make a decision on where to go and when, or be by yourself, please feel free to get in touch with our Boogie Trips Staff and we will do our best to guide you around our favourite coastline.

We offer great and unique bodyboard lessons in Lisbon, for both novice and other levels.

Check out our Bodyboard Courses in Lisbon, Bodyboard Holidays in Portugal and Bodyboarding Surfaris in Lisbon

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If you have never tried or even heard of bodyboarding here are a couple of good reasons to give it a go.

First, let us get into a brief history of bodyboarding .

In 1779 explorer James King sailed to the Hawaiian Islands, where he first laid eyes on Polynesians surfing waves while laying down on wooden carved boards they called the “alaia”.

Fast forward to 1971 and surfer and musician Tom Morey invented the first foam bodyboard, which gave birth to the modern day bodyboard, and also laid the foundation for soft surfboards which are widely used around the world today.

Bodyboarding is a fairly recent sport and has not yet become mainstream.

Is Bodyboarding the same as Boogieboarding?

Boogieboarding is often associated with tourists playing around in whitewash waves on Styrofoam boards.

Bodyboarding is considered an extreme sport that requires a lot of technical skills in order to ride all types of differently shaped waves, properly.

The good news is, compared to stand-up surfing, it is a lot easier to start having fun in the unbroken waves and to progress faster in a safe environment.

Before we get into the details of this, let us just mention a few of the reasons that makes it harder to get started in stand-up surfing if you don’t have all the time in the world.

Your first stand-up surf classes will consist of using a large soft surf board that has a lot of floatation. This makes attempting to catch waves and standing up easier.

You will most likely be spending your first weeks in the whitewash waves with knee to waist high water depth, trying to master the art of the take-off, or in other words  standing up on your board.

The thing that makes surfing unbroken or outside waves so difficult as a beginner is that in order to reach the waves, that break further outside, you need to be able to submerge your board and get under the waves, which also called a duck dive.

Given that the softboard is quite large makes this a difficult task. This means you must gradually start using smaller surfboards with less floatation which are harder to stand up on, in order to be able to duck dive and get out to the unbroken waves. Whilst stand-up surfing, you only use your arms to paddle. This means you will get tired quite quickly.

With bodyboarding, you use a pair of flippers, which makes paddling out a lot easier. Don’t confuse them with diving fins which are much longer and not practical.

 You will need a board which doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but should be the right length, depending on your height and weight. A good way to measure is when you are standing with the Bodyboard in front of you, the board should not go any higher than your belly button.

 You will also be needing a leash which attaches the board to your arm to make sure even if you lose the board it will always remain attached to you.

A short side note on Bodyboard leashes: there are two types; wrist leashes and arm leashes. We personally always recommend getting an arm leash. It just tends to make you feel more comfortable and is less in your way.

In colder waters you will also need a wetsuit, and you are all set to go.

Now you might be asking yourself how does all this equipment help me progress faster?

First of all, you are handling a small board, which if it lands on your head during a session, it does not hurt nearly as much as a surf board.

A small board also means that learning to duck dive under waves, becomes much easier and faster, and once you have learned to duck dive, your confidence level in the ocean increases quickly.

Using flippers allows you to switch between paddling with your legs and with your arms, so you don’t get tired as fast. 

In case you lose your board, you will also realize it is quite easy to stay afloat just by kicking your legs back and forth with your fins on.

Basically, the above point means that you will quickly feel comfortable in the ocean. Once you are comfortable in the water you will progress fast.

We are not saying that bodyboarding is by any means easier than stand up surfing, at a more advanced level. But if your starting off with little or no experience and only have a couple of days a year to practise, bodyboarding will definitely bring you the thrill of paddling out and enjoying green waves in no time.

We could go into many more technical details about bodyboarding, but with this article we just wanted to cover the basics.

 Bodyboarding is as close as it gets to the most ancient of all surfing art forms, bodysurfing.

Check out our Bodyboard Courses in Lisbon, Bodyboarding Holidays in Portugal and Bodyboard Surfaris in Lisbon

Read our Blog article on Bodyboarding on the Lisbon Coast

And a summary of our Bodyboard Holidays in Portugal

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