Paredes do Porto de Mós

Sitting just offshore of Porto de Mós beach on the Lagos coast, this south-facing reef is shadowed from the dominant NW Atlantic groundswell by the Portuguese landmass, and the Ponta da Piedade headland just to the NE–ENE blocks anything coming down the coast from that quarter. Its main exposure is the open Atlantic to the south: a due-south swell, the energy that wraps around Cape St Vincent onto the Algarve's south coast, reaches it directly and builds surge that limits boat access, with the window staying broadly open through the SW and SE. Swell from the ESE and SE arrives largely unobstructed off the Gulf of Cádiz, and the dive is otherwise calm and largely current-free.