With Nazaré, Portugal’s weather conditions getting more intense each day, fans around the world are waiting for the moment where the home to some of the biggest waves in the world will host the best of big wave surfing with the World Surf League’s 2022-2023 TUDOR Nazaré Tow Surfing Challenge.
This year, Hurley will sponsor the can’t miss event, which will feature nine teams made up of two competitors, surfers and jet ski drivers, hoping to make surfing history on what’s deemed “the Holy Grail of waves.” The iconic action-sports brand will be sending Kai Lenny of Hawaii; Nazaré local, Nic von Rupp; and New York icon, Will Skudin, which he says is “a massive honor.”
“I’ve been in the last five or six Nazaré contests, and if you would have told me a few years ago that Hurley would be like sponsoring the [event], I would have never seen that coming,” Skudin tells Celeb Secrets reporter Juliet Schroder in an exclusive interview. “It’s such a monumental moment for [Hurley] and for big wave surfing, and for me to be one of the athletes in the event alongside [Kai] and [Nic] — I definitely get emotional and choked up.”
“I’m from New York and on the same list of some of these guys that come from these places of big wave surfing, and it’s honestly a massive honor. I just feel so blessed to be a part of this team, this family, this event,” he continues.
Known for its spectacular waves, including the current Guinness World Record for largest wave ever surfed — a colossal eighty-six-footer — the 2023 TUDOR Nazaré Tow Challenge is sure to be a headline-making event, as contestants may even have a chance to shatter that record during the event. The interesting part about the contest is that there’s no set date — waves could start crashing at any time from now through March 2023.
When it comes to physical preparation, Skudin tells Celeb Secrets that he visited Nazaré in mid-October for a month of rigorous training, followed by staying active at his wave pool — Skudin Surf — which is located at the American Dream in New Jersey.
“Surfing is very unique — you don’t catch a lot of it and you don’t get to practice the actual sport a lot — so you have to have a mental game where the mental preparation as far as visualizing your lines and waves before they happen because you only get one wave every day that will really stand out no matter who you are,” he says. “…and it’s up to you to really make it happen on that wave.”
“I use a lot of visualization techniques when preparing [for competitions like Nazaré], and I’m just staying warmed up,” he adds. “Equipment is vert important, so I am also making sure I have the right equipment and am testing [the equipment] so I can achieve my goal.”
As for knowing when its time to ride, Skudin tells Celeb Secrets that he’s become his own meteorologist, as he tracks Nazaré’s 16-day forecast daily along with the seaboard’s high and low pressures, which ultimately determine when the big waves will hit the shore.
“After studying this for so many years, I’ve become a weather nerd,” he laughs. “We’ll get the one week notice and then the three day notice before the event is called, but all of us kind of see it coming before the notices. It’s absolutely wild.”
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As the excitement starts to build for this year’s contest, Skudin — along with the whole surfing world — will be glued to Nazaré’s weather report in hopes that the big waves will arrive sooner rather than later. And while Will doesn’t have a preference of when he’d ideally like to catch some waves, his main focus is to finally take home a dub after riding for nearly two decades.
“One thing I’d like to achieve [professionally] is to win a contest. I’ve made it into some finals and was literally within a point from winning [in Nazaré] last year, so I’m really wanting to do better this year,” he shares. “If I win, I think I would drop the mic and call it.”
When the time approaches, fans can catch Skudin and the other surfers compete LIVE on Red Bull TV and WorldSurfLeague.com, WSL’s YouTube channel, and on the free WSL app.
You can learn more about World Surf League’s 2022-2023 TUDOR Nazaré Tow Surfing Challengeby visiting www.Hurley.com and WorldSurfLeague.com.
Quotes were condensed and edited for clarity.
