A Final Glance at Southern Europe's XXL Swell

When the swell thumped south from Northern Europe, organisers of the Big Wave World Tour had to grant the Punta Galea Challenge the green light, which resulted in a day of fairy windy, rugged big wave surfing. But as the wind backed off, the following day that hosted some incredible waves ridden at Roka Puta.

"The day before was enormous, but the wind was bad and the sea wasn't clear. So no one paddled out," explains filmer Unai Borda.

Twiggy was the one who started making the barrels, but Indar, Natxo and imanol where the ones who got the biggest.

With the Big Wave World Tour in town for the Punta Galea Challenge the previous day, some of the world's elite big wave riders where on hand for when the wind to dropped to a breath, and the chaos was superseded by big clean waves.

"On Friday, from the morning to the night, the conditions stayed perfect and we saw the most 'crowded' day on this spot, about 20 guys, when we are used to see 5 or 10 max. Twiggy Baker, Ramon Navarro, Kohl Christensen and locals like Imanol Yeregi, Indar Unanue, Natxo Gonzalez, Pablo García, Iñigo Idigoras were there," recalls Unai.

"Twiggy was the one who started making the barrels, but Indar, Natxo and imanol where the ones who got the biggest. So many people came to watch the show, the cheers and the shouts where crazy, the road was stacked because all the cars trying to get the spot and there where millions of dollars in camera lenses in a round mile."

Further west at Asoalta Point, Foz, Galicia

Whilst Northern Europe took the brunt of the storm, travelling south the swell moved away from the chaos of the centre of the system, filtering into the southern corners of Europe

Supertubos

After the incomprehensible mountains of water witnessed at Nazaré, what you might not have thought to consider is what Supertubos, some 30 miles down the coast was doing on the same swell.

Comparing pictures from the two spots it's hard to imagine both sessions taking place on the same day, but whilst the canyon at Nazare was busy sucking up every inch of swell and out of it formulating monsters – tucked behind the shelter of Peniche as the supersize northerly swell stampeded south, it punched just a fraction of swell in the direction of Supertubos, although not many would regard the conditions as small.

When Nic Von Rupp saw the swell take shape on the charts he dropped what he was doing in Hawaii and jumped on a plane back to Portugal.

South African charger Matt Bromley finds a solid corner to launch from.

With the centre of the storm in the north, where the swell directly met Northern Europe the sea was blown beyond recognition. Travelling south, the swell had time to organise itself over miles of open water gaining power as it charged towards the northern coast of Spain and further into Portugal, hundreds of miles south of the winds that surrounded the source of the storm. Nic Von Rupp left Hawaii specifically to surf this swell at Supertubos, whether it was worth turning his back on the North Shore for is debatable. "Supers wasn't that great," he explains. "Too much period, the wave stretched out. It was beautiful, but straight closeouts."

Don't imagine this looks nearly as appealing when you're looking up at the lip from the shallow inside.

Mount Fuji or a giant lump of water at Nazare?

Nazaré

We're going to throw it out there, at least three of the biggest waves ever were ridden at the end of last week. But no one talks about it anymore. Everyone just calls it large, why? Because it doesn't really matter anymore. Not until someone can categorically measure these goliath lines of positive interference.

Same shape as when it's 6ft just 10X bigger
© 2014 - To Mane

Another ridiculous bomb charges towards the beach

The discourse at Nazaré is so different to the rest of the surf world. Even with two skis shadowing each surfer, death is a but a missed pickup away.

At XXL Nazaré tow is the only option, the same can be said for limited number of waves: The Right, Mullaghmore and Teahupoo at size, but these are all waves which preclude paddling through projection and speed. Nazaré is an impossibly vast and potentially deadly playingfield at size.