Praia de Matosinhos

Porto's city beach and the northern coast's main learners' break. The long breakwater of Leixões harbour shelters the bay and knocks the size down, so what arrives is a soft, forgiving, sandy-bottomed wave a short metro ride from the centre of Porto. It is almost always small and almost always crowded with schools, which is exactly what makes it useful: a reliable place to learn on a coastline that is otherwise cold, exposed and heavy.