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Laird Hamilton's crew publishes a landmark giant-wave surf-foil session at Nazaré - 2020
World First Snapshot
- First Title
- First giant-wave foil session at Nazaré
- Discipline
Big Wave Foiling- Class
- Team / Wave
- Measured Result
- First - (First only)
- Date
- 2020-02-01 (month precision)
- Location
- Nazaré, Portugal, Leiria District, Portugal
- First Achieved By
- Group
World First Spotlight
Monster Council Approval
Big, along with the foiling community at large, has given this glorious achievement the official Foiling Freaks nod for Big Wave Foiling.
May it inspire better evidence, cleaner runs, bigger claims, and even louder hooting from the crowd.
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The Epic Record Run
The Inertia reported that in early 2020, Laird Hamilton traveled to Nazaré with Terry Chung, Luca Padua, and Benny Ferris with foil surfing the biggest waves they could as the goal. The article describes the team as applying years of experimentation to something relatively novel in waves of serious consequence, and it quotes Laird explaining that foils let the crew read and use Nazaré differently from conventional tow surfers. SurferToday and other surf coverage from the same period also described the session as giant-wave hydrofoil surfing at Nazaré.
Rules of the Beast
Counts a major public documentation milestone for expert-level big-wave surf foiling at Nazaré when the published source clearly identifies the riders, the giant-wave location, and the unusual or novel surf-foil application in waves of serious consequence. This does not claim that no private foil attempt occurred earlier at Nazaré.
How This Got the Nod
The Inertia's March 6, 2020 article provides the strongest narrative source, with companion public video documenting the Nazaré session. SurferToday separately reported the same crew traveling to Portugal to surf Nazaré on hydrofoil boards.
Video Proof From the Vault
In early 2020, Laird Hamilton, Terry Chung, Luca Padua, and Benny Ferris took custom surf foils into Nazaré during a major swell.