I have been chasing big swells in Nazaré for while now and it’s not that close from where I live–about 400km–a lot closer than Hawaii though. I’ve already photographed it pretty big with Hugo Vau catching some bombs, but on this day, drama and history came hand in hand and I hope you enjoy my casual approach to the action.
I missed the Maya drowning, but got to shoot Andrew Cotton’s and Felipe Cesariano’s waves of their lives as I was having coffee with some old farts on the other side of the bay. Only a fool wouldn’t race to the point to check the action. You just had to, but I convinced the nervous videographer, Hélio Valentim, to take some clips from there. During a rain squall, we finally headed to O Sítio–just above where all the action was taking place and managed to get some cool shots. Having an army of photographers there didn’t intimidate me and I kept collecting a variety of pictures with my classic nikkors. As the wind picked up from south and as conditions deteriorated, I went down the cliff a bit with my 300mm to get a tight shot of the action just when Carlos Burle got that bomb and made an insane drop straight into the lighthouse!
The rest of the day was spent checking the point on Praia do Sul and chasing old women in the streets of Nazaré as Hélio wouldn’t leave the computer editing or stop converting his clip. What a day!
