Brazilian surfer Lucas Chianca on Monday won the Nazare Big Wave Challenge, as waves bigger than 10m hit the Portuguese coast with extreme weather wreaking havoc around Europe.
After waiting for almost two months for a big swell in what has been a quiet season in Nazare, the competition started with 7.6m waves on Monday morning and wrapped up with 10.7m walls late in the afternoon, but never reached the potential 15m swell that had been forecast.
Portugal’s Nazare boasts possibly the biggest ridable waves in the world, magnified by an underwater canyon 5km deep, which ends where the North Atlantic meets the shoreline near the former fishing village.
Photo: AFP
Hawaiian Garrett McNamara put Nazare on the map in 2011 when he set a then world record for the biggest wave ever surfed at 23.77m.
Brazilian Rodrigo Koxa bettered McNamara’s mark in 2017, also at Nazare, and German Sebastian Steudtner broke the record again there in 2020, surfing a 26.21m wave.
On Monday, it was not the biggest Nazare can deliver, but Chianca put on a show with plenty of walls to work on and caught the best wave of the day, scoring 7.83 to become champion.
Photo: Reuters
He also won the Best Team Performance alongside compatriot Pedro Scooby. Maya Gabeira beat Michelle des Bouillons to win the Women’s Best Performance in another all-Brazilian showdown.
The competition is over, but more waves are expected as extreme weather has been causing travel disruptions and power outages around Europe.
Hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled in many European countries over the past few days, while snowstorms caused havoc on the roads in Spain and Austria.
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