Photo: Tim Bonython // YouTube
The echoes are still reverberating from a wild swell that recently hit Nazaré. According to the people who know the wave best, was was also an event made even more remarkable for coming in the midst of an otherwise disappointing winter. Surf videographer Tim Bonython was there for it all, as recounted in his latest video, appropriately entitled “MASSIVE.”
Of course, the usual suspects were all there to greet the waves. Featured in the edit are Nic Von Rupp, Lucas Fink, Clement Roseyro, Jake Smith, Michelle Bouillons and more. However, as incredible as Von Rupp and company’s feats were in the water, another surfer stood out from the crowd in particular: 13-year-old Kamiel Deraeve.
At the onset of the event, Bonython interviewed Deraeve’s father Peter about what it was like to send his son out into the world’s most intense lineup. “I’m nervous, yeah, but I’m confident,” he explained. “I trust in his abilities and I trust also in his judgment of what he’s capable to do. I think he has really good judgment of his own skills. [He’s] not ready for more than 20 meters, but I think his skills to judge what he is capable of are really high. He doesn’t take a risk that is unnecessary, I believe. I trust him in that.”
“The conditions were insane,” described skimboarder and Nazaré regular Lucas Fink. “This must have been the craziest manifestation of nature that I’ve ever seen. Waves that big, winds that strong. Being able to go out there and surf it was epic.”
