The accident occurred Thursday, January 5, on the Spot of Praia Do Norte, known for its gigantic waves. This is the first time that a surfer has lost his life there.
Mo12345lemonde with AFP
The world of surfing is in mourning. The Brazilian Marcio Freire, 47, lost his life this Thursday in Portugal, while surfaces on the spot of Praia Do Norte, in Nazaré (Portugal), announced the national maritime authority in a statement.
“The rescuers found that the victim was in cardiopulmonary arrest, immediately starting the resuscitation maneuvers on the sand (…). After several attempts, it was not possible [to save him]” -Ar specified.
Marcio Freire is one of the veterans of the surfing of big waves and lived twenty years in the Hawaii archipelago, in the Pacific Ocean, considered as the cradle of international surfing.
Present on the place of the drama, Nic von Rupp, specialist in the surfing of big waves, told The team The course of this fatal accident. “He took the first wave of the series. (…) But he disappeared for a few minutes,” he explains. It happens all the time. In these cases, the rescue team will seek the surfer and There is never a problem. He disappeared for three waves. And we all know that the time of three waves, it becomes dangerous … On the beach, we tried to revive him for forty minutes. When you see that, You always think he will come back to life. You can’t believe it’s over. “
According to sources interviewed by the France-Presse agency, surfing conditions were not among the most dangerous.
“Canyon de Nazaré”
Several professionals from around the world, present in Nazaré on Thursday, paid tribute to Marcio Freire. “Today, we have lost one of ours, wrote the same Nic von Rupp dan a story on Instagram. I have always had a lot of respect for Marcio. (…) Today, I saw him Surfing all day in Nazaré with a huge smile. It is with that smile that I will remember him. “
Also on Instagram, the surfer Thiago Jacare, compatriot of Marcio Freire, paid tribute to his friend, who was, according to him, “more than an idol” and a “real hero”.
The technique of towed surfing consists in allowing the surfer to start on particularly large waves, inaccessible to the train, by means of a motorized machine (jet ski type), which is moving away after launching The surfer on the wave.
Each winter, the Praia do Norte sees many surfers flow. This spot offers exceptional conditions for the surfing of large waves due to a rare geological feature called “Le Canyon de Nazaré”. It is a flaw on the continental plateau which gives rise to an underwater valley 5 kilometers deep and 170 kilometers in length located less than 1 kilometer from the coast. The swell of the Atlantic Ocean rushes into it, its energy is channeled there, before being propelled towards the surface by reaching the coast, creating very large waves. It is there that the German Sebastian Steudtner established, on October 29, 2020, the record for the largest wave ever surfed, whose size was evaluated at 86 feet (26.21 meters).
Several accidents took place in Nazaré since the American Garett McNamara introduced the spot to the community of big waves, in the early 2010s, but none had been fatal until ‘to Thursday.