Last Sunday, Lourenço Katzenstein rode one of the biggest waves ever surfed at Itacoatiara beach in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
This surfing day was the result of an invitation that had already been made in 2016 by the local surfer Gabriel Sampaio, after they met during their first paddle surfing session at Praia do Norte, in Nazaré.
The Portuguese surfer received an alert from Gabriel saying that a giant swell with perfect waves was coming in. In the best go-for-it spirit, Lourenço, who was already in Brazil, booked a trip and flew to Rio de Janeiro.
“The surf session was incredible,” said the Portuguese big rider. “Our initial focus was to go after slabs. We left home at 5am and drove for four hours to get to a spot without knowing if it would be on. We wouldn’t get home before midnight and we’d do the same thing the next day,” he said.
After surfing several waves on slabs, the swell improved for the Itacoatiara spot. On the first day of surfing, the ocean was messy and there was onshore wind, but on the second day the swell aligned making epic conditions.
As well as Lourenço and Gabriel, this session included local surfers Felipe Vinagre and Marcelo Mureb and the tube rider Pedro Calado. All the surfers caught big waves, alternating between surfing and driving the jet skis.
Most of these wave’s attempts were wipeouts, Itacoatiara is a wave with a lot of power and it threw Lourenço onto the beach several times. Gabriel Sampaio was in the spotlight when he caught the best barrel of the day that looked more like Pipeline.
But it was Pedro Calado who drove the jet ski towing Lourenço to the “bomb” of the day. “The vibe in the water was incredible!” said the surfer from Ericeira. “It was just us surfing big waves. This trip was a dream with all the good waves I surfed. And right at the end, on the last wave of the session, I caught this brutal wave. We were about to leave when we saw a wave coming in and Pedro Calado shouted: “Go Lourenço! Go!”. He towed me onto the wave and it was incredible. I remember going down the wave and thinking I wanted to do a barrel. I tried to grab the rail during the bottom-turn but there was a lot of turbulence and Itacoatiara has a lot of power and energy. I couldn’t do it and decided to make a normal bottom-turn and follow the line of the wave, feeling all that energy. I got off the wave and Pedro Calado was celebrating. At the time, I didn’t even realize how big the wave was… That’s probably also why the board was pushed to the limit and all that speed didn’t allow me to make the barrel. Only later when I saw the photo I realized the size better and shared this opinion with Calado. These waves, when they appear, are special because you don’t expect them. We have to seize the moment. And that’s what we work for all year round, so that we’re physically and mentally prepared for these sessions that sometimes don’t go so well. The Brazilian surf community that welcomed me was incredible. Feeling all that stoked after the session is something I’ll never forget and seeing the photos together was a great feeling of joy and sharing,” he said.
Photo credit: @luccabiot
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