The town enjoyed some life during the summer, New Years Eve, carnival, and Easter when it was a holiday destination, mostly for Portuguese visitors. Locals were so afraid of the swell that just a few of them went to the beach; even fewer swam. The surf scene was almost non-existent. In 2001 the town tried to organize a bodyboard event, but their lack of experience turned it into a failure. In 2002 Paulo Salvador and his friends started the local club to teach, for free, the local kids how to surf and to show the giant waves to the world.
It was the time to make the leap: in 2003 Dino organized with Paulo Caldeira the Special Edition, a contest for bodyboarders. Legend Mike Stewart was there. He recalls, “I was really not so familiar with Nazaré. Dino had mentioned that it got really good and really big waves. Both ended up being true. My first session on Norte beach had an audience of maybe two or three including Dino”. But it was a turning point: “Dino got the right people there and organized some great promotional activities that brought attention and notoriety”.
Meanwhile, the big wave surf movement was growing all over the world. Dino Casimiro, Pedro Pisco, Paulo Caldeira and Paulo Salvador were ready to host big wave surfers. In 2005, while walking towards the cliff of Praia do Norte, Dino saw “the horizon moving”. He knew a giant swell was approaching. He grabbed his camera and waited for the right waves to come. He rushed back home and he started looking all over the internet for somebody to share his photos with. “Garrett was the only one with his contact details on the website and I was familiar with his name, I knew how good he was”. It took five years of emailing, late-night telephone calls, study of the swell, and waiting for the right day to come.
“In 2010, the day Garrett rode his first wave, I was walking down to the Forte. I saw the giant wall of water and I spotted a dot over it. At first, I thought it was a seagull, but then I saw it was actually him. When he finished the ride, alive, was the moment I realized that we had finally made it”.
