Meet Bernardo

Your Surf coach in Saint-Girons

Born in Brazil, shaped by the ocean, and now calling Saint-Girons home. Surfing has been part of my life for more than 25 years — and today, I get to share everything it has taught me with others.

It all started in Brazil

I grew up in Porto Alegre, in the south of Brazil, but the ocean was always part of my life. I learned to surf at the age of 11 in Torres, on the coast of Rio Grande do Sul.

What started as a childhood passion quickly became much more. I spent every chance I could in the water, learning to read the waves, understand the ocean and simply enjoying the feeling of being on a surfboard.

My first surfboard was given to me by my cousin. I had no idea at the time that this simple gift would help shape the rest of my life.

FRIENDS, WAVES & EARLY SURF TRIPS

Surfing quickly became much more than just catching waves. It was about the people I shared them with, the road trips, the early mornings, the laughs and all the hours spent together by the ocean.

I grew up surfing with a close group of friends in southern Brazil. We learned together, pushed each other to improve and spent as much time as we could chasing waves along the coast.

Looking back, those years shaped the way I see surfing today: not only as a sport, but as something that brings people together and creates friendships and memories that last a lifetime.

FROM BRAZIL TO CALIFORNIA

When I was in college, I wasn’t really sure which path I wanted to take. I enjoyed studying, but life in the city felt increasingly disconnected from the ocean and from the lifestyle I loved.

At 19, I decided to leave Brazil and head to San Diego, California. I wanted to experience the California dream I had imagined for so long — surfing, meeting new people and living close to the ocean.

My first job there was actually delivering pizzas on a skateboard! It was a simple job, but somehow it fit perfectly into that California lifestyle I had dreamed about.

California opened my eyes to something bigger. For the first time, I realised that surfing didn’t have to be just a passion or something you did in your free time. It could shape the way you lived, the people you surrounded yourself with, and even the choices you made for your future.

It was also in California that I met Marie, a French girl from Saint-Girons, at the shop where I was working. I didn’t know it then, but that meeting would eventually bring me across the Atlantic and start another chapter of my life.

FROM CALIFORNIA TO SAINT-GIRONS

Meeting Marie changed the direction of my life. She was from Saint-Girons, a small village on the southwest coast of France — a place I had never imagined would one day become home.

When I first came here, I discovered a completely different surf environment: endless beaches, powerful Atlantic swells, changing sandbanks and a much quieter way of life.

Little by little, Saint-Girons became more than just Marie’s home. It became mine too.

And somehow, the lifestyle I had been searching for since Brazil — a life close to the ocean, with surfing at its centre — had found its place here.

DISCOVERING SURF CAMPS

When I first arrived in Saint-Girons, I was working at a local campsite. At the time, I had never really heard of the surf camp concept.

Some surf camps were based at the campsite where I worked, and that’s how I first got to know the people behind them and the surf instructors working there. We naturally connected through our shared passion for surfing.

They encouraged me to take my passion further, get my surf instructor qualification and start coaching professionally. That encouragement played an important part in the direction my life would take.

I eventually started working with Wave Tours as a surf instructor. It was my first real experience of the surf camp world — teaching people from different countries, surfing together and sharing much more than just the time spent in the water.

Looking back, that experience planted the first seed for something I would create years later: St Girons Surf House.

STAYING IN SAINT-GIRONS

After several years working with WaveTours, things suddenly changed. Following a change in the management of the campsite, the surf camp could no longer operate in Saint-Girons.

WaveTours offered me the opportunity to continue working with them at another surf camp nearby, but by then Saint-Girons had become my home. I didn’t want to leave.

So instead of following the surf camp somewhere else, I decided to stay and start something of my own.

It was a big step, but also a natural one. I already knew the beach, the waves and the local environment, and I had gained years of experience teaching people from different countries and backgrounds. Through my involvement with the local surf club, I had also become part of the Saint-Girons surfing community and built strong relationships with the local surfers.

That decision was the beginning of my own adventure in Saint-Girons — first as an independent surf coach, and eventually with St Girons Surf House.

CREATING ST GIRONS SURF HOUSE

Starting on my own gave me the freedom to teach surfing in the way I believed in, but over time I wanted to create something more than just a surf school.

The idea was to bring together everything I had experienced along the way — the surf culture I grew up with in Brazil, the lifestyle I discovered in California, the surf camp experience I gained with WaveTours, and the community I had found here in Saint-Girons.

That’s how St Girons Surf House began to take shape.

I wanted to create a place where people could stay just a few steps from the ocean, surf together, improve their skills and learn to understand the sea — but also share meals, stories, sunsets and good times with people they might never have met otherwise.

For me, that has always been one of the most beautiful things about surfing. The waves bring us to the ocean, but very often it’s the people and the experiences around them that we remember the most.

MY APPROACH TO SURF COACHING

For me, learning to surf is about much more than simply standing up on a board.

Of course, technique matters. But I also want people to understand what is happening around them — how to read the waves, recognise currents, understand tides, choose the right position and gradually make their own decisions in the water.

A wave can travel thousands of kilometres across the ocean before reaching us. Learning how to connect with that energy and use it to glide across the water is what makes surfing so special to me.

My goal as a coach is not just to help you catch more waves during a lesson. It’s to give you the knowledge, confidence and understanding to become a more independent surfer — and hopefully develop the same connection with the ocean that has kept me surfing all these years.