Editor’s Note: For anyone in Portugal, the event is now underway and the schedule can be viewed on the official app and regular updates can be found on the Gliding Barnacles Instagram.
Many surfers around the world, especially those on the younger side, are all too obsessed with high performance. The true squeeze lies in the practice, the daily commitment. The juice comes not just from the good waves, but from all the moments in between. No matter how much time we spend in the water, the culture is much greater than what happens on the waves.
Gliding Barnacles is a celebration unlike any other. Not a contest, totally a festival. All of the wild quirks of surfing (and more) bundled into one magical episode in Figueira da Foz, Portugal. My experience there last year still brings a smile to my face, when I think of all the different memories, it feels more like a lifetime than a long weekend.
Chris Dodds
As Portugal has grown and evolved on the international surf scene, so has Gliding Barnacles. Attendance this year is expected to hit 45,000 people over the course of five days, making this the country’s third largest surf gathering, behind only the WSL contest in Peniche, and XL days at Nazaré. Despite the large total attendance, the core group of surfers, shapers, artists, musicians, chefs, and vendors, is a couple hundred strong.
Chris Dodds
For them, is it like a big family reunion — one everyone actually looks forward to — one best described as organized chaos. While walking around the grounds, my friend Beau DiFiore said, “Wouldn’t it be so cool to have something like this in California?”
Yes, of course. But that would be a logistical nightmare. Too many rules and regulations. It would be prohibitively expensive, and there’d be no way to pull it off without corporate sponsors that would kill the whole experience. Whereas, in Portugal, the ticket is only €50.
Chris Dodds
At any given moment there could be a concert, a mural painting, a sculpture unveiling, the preparation of a 5-star meal, boards being shaped and, of course, boards being ridden. The soul of Gliding lives along the jetty wall, where over one hundred chairs and couches are lined up and ready to receive whomever cares to sit, chit, chat, or cry.
Chris Dodds
It’s a unique vantage point, one where spectators can actually be parallel to the surfers since the jetty wall stretches far past the lineup. Bottles of wine are passed around alongside hash-spliffs and pitchers of beer. Vintage cameras of all sorts supplement the steady digital documentation by the media team. Yet, even with an abundance of cameras, it doesn’t impede upon the natural flow of things. It’s not an influencer gathering, there is no look at me energy.
Rather, it is more of a look at everything because love is everywhere.
Chris Dodds
Related: “Love Is Everywhere”: The Living Art of Gliding Barnacles
This year’s music lineup includes performances by Perfect Designs, Queentide, Minnie Robberds, Gorjão, Beau Red, Chicos de Nazca, Eel Men, Subway Riders, Taylor Olin, Nesster Donutes, Vaia Praia, Silvino Branca, Rachel Lord, the Bradfrord Orchestra Tralala, and many more.
Chris Dodds
The Chefs include some of Portugal’s finest creators and restaurateurs like João Sá, Joana and Cala Candeias, Ana Caseiro, Francisco Tomaz, Margarida Bessa Rego, Alexandre Silva, Nuno Cabral, Tony Martins, Joana Barrios, Miguel Vieria, Rafael Norinho, Miguel Moura Menezes, João Bivar, Natalie Castro, Hari Capagain, Miguel Poiares Maduro, Filipe Camacho, Chef Capote (spirit animal of Gliding Barnacles), and Helder Martins. These guest provide amazing, locally-inspired meals to the special guests, surfers, musicians, and staff. This is in addition to the multiple vendors that serve up specialties to the general public.
Chris Dodds
Shapers include: Nico Wavegliders, Ryan Conklin, Rachel Lord, Lucas Adee, Gato Heroi, Cole Kolasa, Fer Fuertes, Tom Morat, Beau Difiore, Jack Hill, Francisco Gaspar, Vasco Monica, Antonio Melo, Jesse Gugliemana, Nick Melanson, Diogo Appleton, Jack Day, Andrea Bonelli, and many more.
Chris Dodds
Artists: Dear Anushka, Dominik Jan Gralak, Federico Malaca, Pedro Falcão, Jula Osten, Olava Coura, João Serpa, Jorge Silva, José Luís Silva, Geo Leeroy, and the list goes on and on.
Related: “No VIP, No Hype, No Contest”: Everything You Should Know About Gliding Barnacles