January 1, 2018, brought us giant waves to the North Beach and took the surfers to the first bath of the year! The forecast promised a good swell and it was possibly the biggest swell of the season so far. A large audience watched the famous big waves of Nazaré.

Without conditions for paddle, surfing was possible with tow in. Jerome Sahyoun, Lucas Lead, Axim Muniain, Justin Dupont, Maya Gabeira, Ross Clark Jones, Mick Corbett, Sebastien Steudner, Nick Von Rupp, Rafael Tapia, Sergio Cosme, João Macedo, Marcelo Luna, Jarryd Foster and Toby Cunningham entered the water and dropped the big mountains. The Australian Mick Corbett, the Brazilian Lucas Chumbo and the Moroccan Jerome Sahyoun came to Nazaré on purpose to catch this swell.

Check this amazing video from this day, from Sebastian Steudtner:

The canyon extended the waves around 13 meters. The best appeared at break of day and during the empty tide excellent conditions for surf were found. The first peak was on fire and it was a beautiful nature show, that formed giant waves of irregular contours, typical of this place.

The forecast for this first week of January is encouraging and promise to bring more big waves. The swell (between 4 and 5 meters) and the period (between 13 and 18 seconds) will be favorable. The wind, precipitation and sea conditions are awaited.

Keep following the forecast and the local webcam of Praia do Norte. Here are the photos of today by André Botelho . (click to enlarge)