Surfers ride big waves at Portugal's Nazare

STORY: Although the waves did not reach the anticipated size, spectators gathered to watch surfers in a location that generates record-breaking waves due to constructive-interference generated by a deep underwater canyon that is three miles (5 kilometers) deep.

Portugal's Nazare boasts some of the biggest waves in the world and attracts the most adventurous surfers on the planet prepared to risk their lives.

Veteran Brazilian surfer Marcio "Mad Dog" Freire died on Thursday while practicing tow-in surfing on the giant waves in Nazare.