A Surf Check for the Ages: Chasing Waves With Two of Europe’s Most Iconic Surf Photographers

The morning after the Gliding Barnacles festival the three of us loaded up into Simon’s 1981 Mercedes 220d sedan and set off to check Buarcos, Europe’s longest right-hander. Much like its left-handed sibling, Mundaka, the glory of the wave can be fickle. A lot of factors have to come together for it to become a freight train of wave and break for hundreds of meters along the scenic headland. 

Spoiler alert, if you were to judge only by the waves, we didn’t score. As we say in English, that’s life, in Portuguese, essa é a vida, in French, c’est la vie, in German, das ist das leben, and in Basque, hori da bizitza (my personal favorite). The experience for me was still sublime, that is, to ride in a vintage Mercedes with two photographers whom I deeply respect, to take in the view and learn about the mechanics of the storied wave. Brazilian jams on the stereo only made the whole thing sweeter as I cruised along with my head swaying like the bobblehead dog on the dash. 

The point of the story is not to wax on about how we scored the most epic conditions, rather to share a glimpse of how the journey can be just as sweet as the destination itself. Even if it had been pumping that day, the locals would have been all over it, and the current is known to be fierce. I would have likely been mostly a spectator—one with a keen eye for scraps. You can’t just rock up to a marquee wave in a foreign land and start grabbing set waves. That’s just not how it goes. From what I hear, Kiko is the one to watch when the wave fires up and comes to life.

The story is to simply give thanks for the privilege to travel and meet people like Simon Fitz and Xue Gil Guidonet, two individuals who exist behind the lens and produce some iconic work capturing the surf, the characters, and the beauty of their homelands and wherever else their camera leads them. 

In some circles Simon and Xue (pronounced shway) need no introduction, for the better part of the past decade they’ve been capturing the essence of surfing wherever their lenses lead them. At the annual Gliding Barnacles festival in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, they’re the dynamic duo that document everything and stitch the chaos into a presentable, even enviable, gathering.

When trying to think of how to best describe their work at the festival, I have to give it to my writerly brother, Ron de Leeuw, of Nordic Surfers Magazine, who said it best...

Indeed, they are, but that’s only just the surface and the depth comes from what transpires in every nook and cranny of the festival that has gone on to become one of the largest surfing events in Portugal—Europe’s surfy-est nation. 

Ron goes on to explain, “Sometimes, when events are being portrayed as culturally significant with great aesthetics, it lacks the depth it truly needs to be labeled as such—drowning in sauce. Then, on the other end of the spectrum, if an event is too core it can quickly become too in-crowd, esoteric, highbrow, and supercilious.Safe to say, I’ve experienced Gliding Barnacles safely between those two ends without it feeling icky—on the contrary even. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

I thoroughly enjoyed it as well and Simon and Xue were a big part of that, every time we’d see each other there’d be smiles and jokes, oftentimes it was me teasing Simon because he showed up 20 minutes late to the media meeting.

As an upstanding German citizen, being punctual is Unerlässlich (essential) or Ein Muss (a must). I, on the other hand, was on time for the meeting even though I am Brazilian by way of Southern California, being punctual is relative (to be fair, I was 5 minutes late). 

As he walked into the meeting, apologizing profusely, and saying, in his defense, that he was working and shooting the surfing expression session that was indeed happening at that time. I teased, “What kind of German are you Simon? The meeting started 20 minutes ago.” Or throughout other moments at the festival, whenever he showed up to wherever I was, “Late again Simon? Tssk, tsssk” with a emphatic point at my watch. 

After the tenth or so instance of shit-talking he laughed, “Fuck, I’m never going to live this down, am I?”

“Not as long as I am breathing my friend. Just like Harry Potter was The Boy Who Lived, to me, you will always be,TheGerman Who Was Late…”, we both laughed. 

At another point, I offered him a beer. “Oh no, thank you, but I’m not drinking…”

I glared at him and said with a mix of disgust and amazement, “You don’t drink beer? What kind of German are you?!? I may need to see your passport because I’m starting to think this whole thing is a ruse." 

Xue and I had a much different introduction. Although I had followed them both on Instagram for years, I had never messaged Simon, whereas I had messaged Xue multiple times, years prior, when I was working for Thermal Travel and trying to license some of his images for our social media.

To be honest, I was a little intimidated to introduce myself at Gliding because he never really responded to me my various messages, I think I got a few words out of him, at most, and we were even offering to pay. I figured, Fuck, this guy must be a real hammer, he doesn’t even need the money. He must think we are lame... 

Eventually, I found myself standing near him and said, “You’re Xue, yeah?”

“Yep, that’s right” he said with a curious smile.

“You may not remember this but I messaged you in the past when I was working for Thermal Travel…”

“Oh yeah, I remember now. Sorry, I don’t think I said much. I didn’t think it was serious.” 

I laughed, “No worries man, it’s all good…”

“What do you do now?”

“I work for Surfer Magazine.”

“Oh fuck, I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t offend you back then.”

I laughed. “Not at all man. It’s nice to finally meet you, I’ve been a fan for years.” 

So consider this the first chapter of what I hope to be a long story with two of Europe's finest photographers and all-around amazing human beings. May there be many more cruises in the Mercedes, late arrivals to meetings, laughs with friends new and old, beautiful photographs, and, with a bit of luck, excellent waves. Peace, until we meet again my friends.