This week, some of the world’s best big wave surfers are in Nazaré, Portugal, home to the biggest wave on the planet. An early season winter swell is pulsing into the underwater canyon off the Portuguese coast, with giant eight to nine-metre (20 to 30ft) waves rising out of the ocean. They might not be the world-record breaking 26-metre (86ft) monster wave ridden there two years ago, but they’re not small either.
Among the surfers is 44-year-old Matt Formston. Like his counterparts, the Sydney-born surfer has been in the water for decades, winning national and international titles and riding some of the best waves in the world. But unlike his counterparts, Formston is blind; at Nazaré, he is becoming the first blind surfer to ride such big waves.
