The World Surf League (WSL) has decided to keep until Sunday all the structure set up for the test of the giant wave world circuit in Praia do Norte (Nazaré), for a special tow-in event that can break new records.
“WSL believes that on this day can be beaten the world record of the largest wave ever surfed and decided to stay until Sunday in Nazaré,” Francisco Spínola, told the director general of WSL Portugal.
“For the first time, a ‘tow-in’ event will be streamed live on the WSL website as if it were an official event.”
According to the director, this unprecedented event is only possible thanks to a partnership between WSL and Mediapro, the leading group in the European audiovisual market.
“We are going to keep the whole structure and many of the athletes who competed today [in the test of the global giant wave circuit] will stay here to participate. The conditions of the sea promise giant waves and we will be here to show the world the strength of the Nazaré cannon “he said.
Brazilian Rodrigo Koxa is the current world record holder of giant waves and it was in Nazaré, about a year ago, that he surfed the biggest wave ever, with the official mark of 24.38 meters – recognized by Guinness World Records -, beat the previous Garrett McNamara record.
Today, South African surfer Grant Baker was the great winner of the event of the giant waves world circuit that took place in Nazaré, overcoming the opponents in the final, among which were two Portuguese ‘big riders’.
Unlike in ‘tow-in’, in this event surfers have to enter the wave in the paddling, using only their own arms, without the use of jet skis.
Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker was in incredible form in the decisive heat and got a total score of 25.04 points, leaving the Brazilian Lucas Chianca (who had won the last race) in second place (23.31 points) and Basque Natxo Gonzalez – who won the only perfect round of the event (10 points) in the semi-finals – in the third and final place of the podium (22.71 points).
The Portuguese Alex Botelho (22.06 points) and João de Macedo (20.87 points) finished in the fourth and fifth places, respectively, ahead of Australian Russell Bierke (18.89 points), sixth.
In a final with ‘dream’ conditions and the biggest waves approaching 15 meters, the competitors took to the delirium the ‘crowd’ that went to the North Beach to see the ‘cannon’ running.
