The day after the death of Brazilian surfer Marcio Freire, a leaden silence settled over Nazare, the Portuguese fishing village that has become a winter destination for big-wave surfers.
Around the lighthouse perched on the rocky promontory of Praia do Norte, everything, even the ocean, seemed calm.
The rollers breaking on Friday were, for once, just a few meters high on a short stretch of coast in central Portugal that draws surfers keen to ride its famed wall of water.
Photo: AFP
The Nazare Canyon, a 5km deep crack in the floor of the continental shelf, allows waves to roll in with little loss of energy to be thrown upward as the fault ends just off the shore, creating giant breakers.
Since Hawaiian surfer Garrett McNamara rode a series of record-breaking Nazare waves starting in late 2011, the village has drawn big-wave surfers and those who like to watch them.
German Sebastian Steudtner set the world record for the tallest wave surfed, a 26.2m breaker, on Oct. 29, 2020.
On Thursday, Freire, a veteran big-wave chaser, died there at the age of 47.
He was being towed out in a moderate swell when he fell.
“The rescuers found that the victim was in cardiorespiratory arrest, immediately starting resuscitation maneuvers on the sand,” the Portuguese National Maritime Authority said in a statement. “It was not possible to reverse the situation.”
It was the first surfing death in the canyon, local authorities said, yet the conditions were relatively benign and Freire was an experienced surfer.
He was one of a trio of Brazilians who starred in a 2016 documentary called Mad Dogs about surfing the legendary Jaws wave in Hawaii without being towed.
On Friday, Nazare Maritime Police Commander Mario Lopes de Figueiredo said that they were still investigating how Freire died.
“The waves did not exceed 5m,” he said. “These are not difficult conditions for surfing here. On the days of the greatest swell, they reach between 15 and 20m.”
“The surfer fell and was submerged by the wave. Then he was hit by two or three waves from behind and he did not have time to react in time or found himself unconscious at the impact of the first,” he said.
Brazilian filmmaker Bred Oliveira, a member of Freire’s team, the “Jagua Boys,” filmed his friend’s last wave, thinking at the time he was simply recording a training session.
“We had no idea. Nobody really knows how it happened. I was filming and, suddenly, I heard the sirens of the rescuers,” he said.
“The world of big surfing is in mourning, many surfers are in shock,” he said.
Oliveira said he hopes that at least the accident will help “improve safety” in Nazare.
The Rakuten Monkeys on Sunday downed the CTBC Brothers 2-1, handing the hosts their second consecutive loss in the best-of-seven CPBL Taiwan Series at the Taipei Dome. Monkeys’ ace starter Pedro Fernandez of the Dominican Republic dominated on the mound, cruising through six scoreless innings before giving up a run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning. He gave up only three hits and walked two batters in a 93-pitch outing, giving his Taoyuan-based team an edge. Offensively, the Monkeys’ leadoff batter Lin Li hit Brothers starter Brandon Leibrandt’s pitch over the center-field wall in the game’s first at-bat,
Rafael Leao on Sunday shot AC Milan to the top of Serie A with a brace in a 2-1 win over ACF Fiorentina who were enraged by the “scandalous” awarding of the penalty that decided the game. Portugal winger Leao pushed Milan one point ahead of local rivals Inter, SSC Napoli and AS Roma with a coolly taken spot-kick, given for what looked like a soft foul on Santiago Gimenez by Fabiano Parisi, with four minutes remaining. That goal capped a fine first league start of the season for Leao and came after he drew the hosts level with a brilliantly struck
Sean Dyche on Thursday achieved in his first game with Nottingham Forest what predecessor Ange Postecoglou could not in eight matches in charge: Win. Under its new coach, Nottingham Forest presented a concentrated display resulting in a 2-0 victory over Porto in the UEFA Europa League. It was the first victory for Nottingham in the competition and only the second overall this season, while Porto were defeated for the first time this season. Morgan Gibbs-White converted from the penalty spot in the 19th minute at the City Ground in West Bridgford, England. Igor Jesus doubled the advantage from another penalty in the 77th
The tiny village club of Mjallby AIF on Monday won the top tier Swedish soccer league with a 2-0 away win at IFK Gothenburg, sealing the title with three rounds of matches remaining. Jacob Bergstrom and Tom Pettersson scored the goals in Mjallby’s 20th win in 27 league games. Mjallby has a population of fewer than 1,400 people and plays in an outdated 6,000-seat stadium with stands weathered by the winds of the Baltic Sea. “It’s a huge relief to experience this now, a relief with three games to go,” said Anders Torstensson, a former army officer and secondary-school teacher who coaches the
RSS