Last week the city of Nazaré, Portugal hosted the 3rd stop of the Freeride World Championship. Nazaré is home to beautiful beaches, world-renown seaside resorts and home to one of the best stops along the freeride tour. With swells being known to beat world record heights each year, every freerider yearns to go out and ride at this location.
This year’s event went well but the swells were not what they were hoped to be. This made it difficult for the riders as they had to pull every trick out of the bag and show the judges what they could do on small swells. The crowds expectations were met when they were able to see Abraham Hochstrasser/Bruno Jacob, Joel Barry/Brandon Lawlor, Hugo Goirre/Gil Beurnier and François Lavergne/Mark Gomez battle it out for the quarterfinals.
After a great performance by each rider, the semi finals were set and the Brazilian Bruno Jacob, the Ivorian Hugo Goirre and the Americans Brandon Lawlor and Mark Gomez were left but only one would be crowned champion. It was a sad sight as the famous local rider, the “flying Mexican” Abraham Hochstrasser was unable to perform completely because of mechanical problems. After the semifinals, it was the Americans who were left to battle it out. Ultimately, Mark Gomez was able to secure the victory.
All of these riders are extremely thankful for their sponsors as it allows them to ride some of the industry’s leading equipment and be able to travel around the world to do the thing they love most and help grow this sport.
