Nazaré (Portugal) (AFP)

The ocean is bubbling and spitting waves of incredible power, with outsized dimensions, stalked by surfers defying the impossible. In Nazaré, the hunt for the biggest wave is open.

The day is not even up at the site of Praia de Norte, a good hundred kilometers north of Lisbon, and they are already many to have massed at the foot of the red lighthouse to observe the waves, in a almost religious silence.

The alert fell a few days before: we announced great waves, the famous 'big waves' of 20 meters. The news spreads like wildfire. Extreme surfers but also addicted to the sensational public, fans of photos with high potential of 'like' on social networks, and breathtaking image hunters arrived in a flash.

Nazaré is the spot for big surfing. A gigantic swell that offers a sublimated sight thanks to the perspective rendered by the lighthouse and the impression that the wave passes over the lighthouse. The optical effect is such that we never see the bottom of the wave, the waves are oversized. And the public, unlike the mythical sites of Jaws (Hawaii) and Mavericks, is in the front row, on the cliff, and on the lighthouse.

The French Justine Dupont knows the place well, here she spent her fourth winter. And just a few days ago, on November 13, she tamed a wave of twenty meters that dazzled the world of surfing.

- Global phenomenon -

The season was just beginning, the swell had not yet attracted the crowd. But today, she does not return. Twenty surfers and more than a thousand people are at the rendezvous.

"Last year, I do not have the memory of seeing so many people, I have the impression that every week there are more people, there are cars parked all over Nazare. It's crazy, 2 years ago, we went to see the sea to the lighthouse, there was no car parked.There you can not drive.It is impressive.For me, it is only the beginning, "says the champion.

Indeed, Nazaré - a small fishing town of 15,000 inhabitants - is only becoming a global phenomenon.

His secret? A five-kilometer deep fault in the Atlantic Ocean that stops right in front of the lighthouse, forcing the wave formed under the water to stop dead to return all its energy to the surface, creating huge waves.

It has always existed but the surf world did not know it. Until 2010 and this initiative of the mayor, who sought to support Nazaré winter.

"We started to look at this wave as a tourist product in 2010. We looked for someone who could develop this surf of big waves, we came across Garett McNamara and we invited him," remembers Pedro. Pisco, responsible for sports for the city of Nazaré.

- 'It's the god!' -

Garett McNamara, a Hawaiian wave surfer, remembers his eyes on the ocean as he knows he will not be able to surf because of a foot injury - the moment he accepted 'invitation.

"No surfer considered Portugal a great surfing destination, but I was looking for the 100-foot (30 m) wave, and I received this email from a bodyboarder from Nazaré, who dreamed of someone who would be able to ride this wave, and today I am here! "

On November 1, 2011, he surfs a wave of 78 feet (23.77 m). He enters the Guinness Book of Records, beating the mark of the American Mike Parsons, 77 feet (23.4 m) established in January 2008 at Cortes Bank, on the California coast, four years after the first reference signed in January 2004 by American Pete Cabrinha in Maui / Hawaii (70 feet / 21.3 m).

McNamara's performance goes around the world. And today, at the age of 52, McNamara "is the god here!", As pointed out by Anne-Marie Sana-Boisson, who is witnessing a growing and recent change over the past 4 years that she holds a market stall. from Nazaré.

"At first there were a few people but now it's crowded, now in Nazare, it's building, it's selling, it's hard to find houses, there are more and more sports events, has made the city more dynamic in this respect, as traders say, it creates the link between summer and spring, before in September everything stopped ".

The big waves will make the show until February, the surfers can still dream for a long time to take the wave of their life.

© 2019 AFP