Mercedes-Benz Nazaré Winter Session

The Awards Return to the Nazaré Canyon

The Mercedes-Benz Nazaré Winter Session awards have returned to Praia do Norte, celebrating the most extraordinary big wave performances of the season at the world’s most famous big wave surf break.

What the Nazaré Winter Session Represents

The Nazaré Winter Session is not a conventional surf competition. There are no heats, no judges sitting in a booth scoring two-wave combinations. It is a celebration of the season’s best performances, judged after the fact based on documented rides, wipeouts and rescues across the entire winter season at Praia do Norte.

This format reflects the reality of big wave surfing at Nazaré. The biggest waves do not arrive on a schedule. They come when the Atlantic generates the right swell, when the Nazaré Canyon focuses that energy, and when the conditions align to produce waves that can exceed 20 or even 30 metres. A surfer or team needs to be ready at a moment’s notice, sometimes with less than 24 hours of warning before the biggest day of the season arrives.

The Nazaré Canyon: Why This Place Produces the Biggest Waves

The Nazaré Canyon is one of the longest and deepest submarine canyons in Europe, stretching approximately 170 kilometres into the Atlantic. It runs almost perpendicular to the coastline directly in front of Praia do Norte, and this geometry is what makes Nazaré unique as a big wave location.

Atlantic swells that would otherwise dissipate as they approach the shallow continental shelf are instead channelled and concentrated by the canyon, arriving at Praia do Norte with far greater energy and height than they would elsewhere on the Portuguese coast. The result is waves that consistently exceed those found anywhere else on earth during major Atlantic swell events.

Key Facts about the Nazaré Canyon

• Approximately 170 kilometres long and up to 5 kilometres deep
• Runs directly toward Praia do Norte, concentrating swell energy
• Responsible for the record-breaking waves first surfed by Garrett McNamara in 2011
• Produces rideable waves consistently above 15 metres during major winter swells
• The combination of swell direction, period and canyon geometry creates conditions unique in world surfing

Freddy Olander at the Winter Session

Freddy Olander is an active participant in the Nazaré Winter Session. Based in Nazaré and operating from the Big Wave Center at the harbour, Freddy surfs Praia do Norte throughout the winter season, paddling in and towing into the biggest waves the canyon produces. His years of experience at this specific break, combined with deep knowledge of the canyon’s behaviour during different swell events, make him one of the athletes who belongs in the water when the biggest days arrive.

Beyond his own surfing, Freddy and his team operate the jet ski safety infrastructure that makes surfing at Praia do Norte possible. Rescue operations, tow-in support and safety protocols at Nazaré require a level of expertise and ocean knowledge that only comes from years of working in these conditions.