November is the last of the prime season. The Atlantic is producing at winter volume and the wind has not yet turned into the problem it becomes in December, so the coast is at its most productive without being at its most difficult.
The water has begun dropping and sits at 17°C, which is the point where a 4/3 starts making more sense than a 3/2 for a long session. Everything is open and nothing is busy: the summer is four months gone and the winter crowd, such as it is, has not arrived. Nazaré is in the middle of its season and the swells feeding it are reaching every beach from Ericeira to the Algarve.
