Nazaré, the last tragic wave of surfing pioneer Marcio Freire

The weather forecast gives giant waves for tomorrow in Nazarè. But Marcio Freire, who was waiting for them, will no longer be able to ride them. “Mad Dog”, this is his nickname, died just as he was surfing one of these mountains of water that form in front of Praia do Norte, the beach north of Nazaré, amplified by the crazy mechanism of “O Canhao”, the largest submarine canyon in Europe.

In Nazaré with parents
Marcio Freire was 47 years old, a Brazilian from Bahia, father of two daughters. He could not be defined as a modern professional of extreme surfing, because he himself had been careful not to let himself be swallowed up by the machine of sponsorships, obligatory exposure on social networks, sought-after advertising (cars, swimsuits, glasses, etc.: this is how one surfers of oversized waves make a living). He surfed because he loved surfing. Point.

He had been doing this for several years, looking for the perfect wave. And he had also wanted to try the Nazaré arena. From November to March, the season: but the ocean is not there to detach tickets like at the post office, you have to leave earlier or wait for the last minute. In this case Marcio had arrived in Nazarè in time, to experience the season of the big waves. And his parents, with whom he had spent Christmas and New Year’s, had also joined him in the Portuguese town.

The tragedy
Last Thursday, when the swell came out to sea, the storm was not gigantic. Medium-small waves, between 3 and 7 meters in height, growing and graced by the wind. Marcio – several riders have seen him – surfed with a smile on his lips.

Something didn’t go right. He fell on the way down. It’s not unusual, there’s an entire system ready to intervene in the event of a wipeout, a misstep. Tow-in surfing, this extreme discipline of surfing (from to tow, to tow), requires the surfer to be towed on the wave by a partner on a jet-ski – a sort of extreme water ski, complete with cable, pole , hook – and it is then the driver himself who is ready to retrieve it, at the end of the stroke in an emergency. A tried, tried, tested operation. The jet skis have a sort of platform, the “sleigh”, which is put into the water for the recovery of the unfortunate person. In Marcio’s case, however, there was no happy ending.

The surfer fell, was overwhelmed by the train of foam that is generated when the wave breaks, crushed, centrifuged, suffocated. These are terrible moments, you lose your bearings, you have to hold your breath and desperately try to get back to the surface. On the body you have the weight of the water column, tremendous. That’s why there are jackets equipped with cans of compressed air which, activated by pulling the strings, give an upward thrust to the wearer. And often, they get him out of hell. Some witnesses say that Marcius was not wearing it. It was kind of his prerogative. He was also called Mad Dog for this. But it is also true that the jacket we are talking about, the inflatable vest, is not usually worn with medium-small swells, in other words with non-giant waves. We’re probably talking about 6-7 meters, precisely “small-medium” for Nazaré (elsewhere it’s another matter). It is not excluded that the Brazilian was also hit by his own board on the head and passed out.

The surfer was recovered, transported to the beach by jet-ski, then taken over by the rescue car. The volunteers declare in a note that they started resuscitating him “at a time when he was in cardiac arrest”. After several attempts, however, “it was not possible to reverse the situation”. Nazaré Qualifica, the promotion company of Nazaré. “Death was declared on the spot, with the activation of the Psychology Office of the Maritime Police to provide support to the victim’s family”. The body “was then transported to the Institute of forensic medicine of Leiria”, the clarifications still given by the volunteers.

A “rebel” pioneer
Marcio Freira had been a pioneer of big wave surfing. At 23 he had left Brazil for Hawaii, he had given up everything to go surfing Pe’ahi-Jaws, the legendary Maui wave. One of the cathedrals of water which, for those who are able to do it, are Everest. He had settled on the island, had earned a living as a gardener, lifeguard and had entered the legend because he had been one of the first to surf Jaws “rowing”, that is, advancing towards it, on it by force of arms and not towed from a jet ski.

He often did it with two friends who, like him, had given up everything for the wave, compatriots Danilo Couto and Yuri Soledad. The trio becomes famous when a documentary tells the story of him. It’s called Mad Dogs, it comes out in 2016, and they become Mad Dogs. In particular, then, Mad Dog also becomes the nickname, or the nom de guerre if you like, of Marcio, because he is hostile to any security measure. No protective vest; let alone talking about a helmet. “It was pure courage, we did it for ourselves, for our satisfaction,” said Freire. That, despite the glory, the level, the pioneering imprinting, he never wanted to become an athlete-testimonial of something. And he died, as he is now saying all over the surfing world, while he felt alive and doing what he loved to do.

The first mourning
The latter vision is very romantic, but perhaps it is not the same one that the Camara Municipal, i.e. the Municipality of Nazaré, will now have to face with the other local authorities, and the Nazaré Surf Rescue Association, the partnership that is trying to develop the safety net and assistance to the surfers of the Praia do Norte arena: doctors, rescuers, volunteers with quads and 4x4s on the beach, spotters who spot the waves. Because the death of Marcio changes the horizon of Nazarè. There had never been a victim, in fact.

Tow-in surfing was born in Hawaii in the 1990s. In Nazaré we can say part in 2010, when Nazaré Qualifica, the company wanted by the Municipality to promote the local waves, hires the American surfer Garrett McNamara, who in 2011 rides a record mountain of water and brings fame to Praia do Norte. In 2013 Garrett came close again (100 feet of waves, but without primacy), the photo while surfing the blue giant with the fort and the lighthouse in the foreground silhouetted against the ravine went around the world, and done: Nazaré becomes the capital of giant waves, like the cathedrals of Hawaii and Mavericks in California. Then, in 2017, Hugo Vau rides Big Mama, a 35m wave, which becomes legend.

Since 2010, there have been incidents in front of the giant wave beach. The British Andrew Cotton in 2017 had broken a vertebra and was rescued by Hugo Vau. And before that, in 2013, Brazilian star Maya Gabeira almost drowned and was saved by her fellow Brazilian Carlos Burle. In 2020, during the Nazaré Tow-In Surfing Challenge, Hugo Vau and Alex Botelho have a very serious jet-ski accident: Alex remains without oxygen for a total of ten minutes, losing consciousness twice, and revived as many.

Accidents, but always with a happy ending. This time, for poor Marcio Freire, there was no. Nossa Senhora da Nazaré did not perform the miracle.