This Tuesday, February 11, 2020, the “Nazaré Tow Surfing Challenge by Jogos Santa Casa” competition took place in Praia do Norte, organized by WSL.

Check the RECAP video from WSL, with amazing footage from the event:

Early in the morning, Kai Lenny caught a wave "from another world". See the video of this bomb (via WSL):

It was a spectacular day for those who can watch in person and online at nazarewaves.com, the giant waves did not stop all day!

From 8:30 in the morning the action began, extending until mid-afternoon, a period in which we were treated to excellent conditions at sea, with the formation of giant waves and surfable as planned. The weather was also favorable for those who watched it live, who saw first-hand this spectacle of Nature and the fearless surfers.

The team of Portuguese surfers Alex Botelho and Hugo Vau (Team Portugal), had a very serious and amazing accident during the afternoon, in which Alex Botelho lost consciousness and was floating in the sea for some time, were scary minutes for those who watched, and fortunately he is already stable and conscious in the hospital. Hugo Vau was also injured but as a lesser risk.

Watch the video (via WSL) of the accident in which the surfers were thrown many meters into the air and fell on the jetski, impressive !!

Below you can see the video of Alex Botelho's rescue, via Jo Alex:

We wish Alex Botelho and Hugo Vau a quick improvement. Update 20/Feb - Both are stable and recovering. Update 01/Mar - Alex Botelho left the hospital and it's ok!

On this day people from all over the world came to Nazaré, mainly from regions closer to Portugal / Europe, with a large crowd as you can see in the photos below. They witnessed Nazaré's consecration as the place with the biggest waves in the world and the only one where it is possible to watch from up close, feeling all the energy of the sea and directly seeing the surfers' activity just tens of meters away.

This competition opened with an innovative format, in which surfers are pulled by jet-ski (there is no other way for this size of waves), and there are no juries, it is the surfers who vote among themselves on who is the winner , in addition to other differences for surf competitions.

The event was awesome and it is expected to continue stronger in the coming years.

At the end of the day, the winners of the Nazare Tow Challenge 2019/2020 were announced.

Winning team:
   - Team Young Bulls – Kay Lenny & Lucas “Chumbo” Chianca

Best female wave:
   - Justine Dupont

Best male wave:
   - Kay Lenny (see 2nd video above)

See the complete results of the competition on the official WSL website.

Review the video of most of the competition (via WSL):

It is noteworthy that only in the last 10 years has the large waves of Nazaré been known as the largest in the world, although they have occurred for thousands of years, right in front of us. The World Surf League organization itself is amazed by this. It is a case study, which may be justified by the fear that this sea has always imposed, witnessed by local fishermen hundreds of years ago. In fact we must continue to fear or at least respect this sea well, which today still reminded us of its very dangerous side with Alex Botelho's accident (see video above).

The waves will continue very strong this week, follow the alerts on the main page.

Check another amazing video with surfer view, from WSL in this day:

See the powerful photos of today below (click to enlarge), via the municipality of Nazaré / Praia do Norte.

Nazaré, Leira, Portugal - 11/Feb/2020 (UPDATING...)