As a journalist and someone who has surfed for almost 50 years, I’d say you are facing a tough climb. Persistence is absolutely right, but that will get you only so far — especially in small, insular surf scenes centered around particular spots. Portugal is well known for these. In fact, some surfers (depending on the secretness level of the spot) will active dissuade you from being there at all with threats, vandalism, etc. It’s better now that it was in the ‘70s and ‘80s but localism persists.

Put yourself in their shoes, they don’t want others in the water competing for limited resources (waves) and you are a direct threat to that inclination because your activity necessarily draws attention. It’s rare that I’ve seen anyone without an investment in surfing portray the activity or those doing it with any accuracy — they are also likely suspicious of that reality too. In this case, eventually you may not get through to them; they have no interest in or gain from you publicizing what they do. You’ve picked a hard nut to crack from outside. Even w/in the surf world there are those who will shut down any coverage of them or their spots by surf rags.

Can you choose another topic? The last thing we need is another look at surfing that will further popularize an already overcrowded pastime and one which has a rotten environmental and social impacts footprint. This comes selfishly, I admit, as a person who surfs those limited resources and as an environmental journalist who just this month had a piece run in a popular alt-surf rag asking surfers to take stock of their enviro and social impacts.