Kai Lenny left Praia do Norte with two prizes on a single day. He and Lucas Chianca were crowned team champions of the 2020 Nazaré Tow Surfing Challenge, and he took the Men's Wave of the Day award. The ride he chose would soon carry a third honour.
One right-hander, three honours
Team Young Bulls drew clean lines through the biggest walls of the day. Competition began at 8:30 am under light offshore winds, with huge surf breaking below the world-famous cliffs of the Praia do Norte lighthouse. Chianca whipped him into a right that looked set to wedge, and it turned out far bigger than expected.
Both surfers looked at ease on faces standing more than 40 feet, riding walls that would bury most surfers in head-high surf. The contest was voted, not scored, so the winners were chosen later by the athletes. It ran for six hours straight, showcasing the best big-wave riders in the world.
A second straight XXL title
That right-hander measured close to 70 feet and went on to win the 2020 XXL Biggest Wave Award. It was Lenny's second consecutive XXL title, after the giant Jaws wave that earned him the honour a year earlier. Ten teams of surfers and jet-ski drivers took turns riding the liquid avalanches of Nazaré.
"I wouldn't have been able to ride this wave without Lucas, so it's as much his award as it is mine," Lenny told reporters. The pair had shared only a couple of training sessions before the event.
The day added a rare double to a career already full of firsts. For Kai Lenny, Nazaré had become one more line in a long record of open-ocean feats.
