Sunday, December 12, 2021, the "Tudor Nazaré Tow Surfing Challenge" organised by WSL was just about to start at 8AM GMT.

Our wake-up call was set to 6:30 AM that day. The first thing to do was to check on the nazarewaves.com webcams about the current weather situation. Unfortunately, the fog surrounded both the lighthouse and the northern side beach. In great hopes that it would only be a temporary weather situation, we and thousands of other spectators kept on coming to the location.
The event got delayed consecutively until 2:30 PM, due to the heavy fog that made it unable for the surfers and crew to get up on the sea.

Monday, December 13, 2021, the "Tow Surfing Challenge" had been reset for 8 AM.

Once more, our wake-up call was set to 6:30 AM. The moment we went to the live webcams and saw that fog had cleared up and the waves were just the perfect size for the challenge, the excitement went through the roof!

At 8 AM the first call was given, everybody was ready. The sun, the swell, the size of the waves were just right, we all felt the energy.

The tension has set across when Lucas Chumbo, trying to pick up Kai Lenny from the first big wipeout of the day, gets caught on the jetski by the following wave. Quickly picking up the jet ski from the beach they were right back behind the breaking zone, ready to pick up more waves.

After many mythical waves, Chumbo comes in with a perfect 360 in one of the biggest waves surfed that day. This leads him to a score of 8.17 ( second-best wave of the day ) as seen on the WSL live from nazarewaves.com
Right after, comes Pedro Scooby scoring the best wave of the day with a 9.50, huge barrel that ended up with a spit. I remember hearing the crowd go nuts when Scooby got out of the barrel, cheers, claps, and whistles all around the lighthouse hill.

Although not getting the best wave of the day, Lucas Chumbo comes in first place with a total of 23.34 which comes on top of 2nd place Pedro Scooby with 22.90. Third places come to Kai Lenny with 19.07, Lucas teammate from team RED.
Making this the second consecutive win of Lucas Chumbo on the Nazaré Tow Surfing Challenge.

Watch the WSL video with the best moments of Nazaré Tow Surfing Challenge

Watch the WSL video with the full broadcast of the event:

[UPDATE 12/30/2021]: Check this amazing video with Kay Lenny and Lucas Chumbo in slow motion, filmed during the Nazaré Tow Surfing Challenge:

For next year there's more, see here for more information on the annual Nazaré Tow Surfing Challenge event.

Some photos are by Miguel Sousa and Vítor Estrelinha/Praia do Norte.

Click on the thumbnail images below to see more photos from the event.