‘Mad Dogs’ surfer Marcio Freire dies while riding waves in Portugal

Veteran Brazilian surfer Marcio Freire, featured in the 2016 “Mad Dogs” documentary about conquering a giant wave in Hawaii, died Thursday in a surfing accident off the coast of Portugal, authorities said. He was 47.

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The Portuguese Surfing Federation confirmed Freire’s death in a statement, according to People.

“The Portuguese Surfing Federation regrets the tragic death, in Nazaré, of Brazilian surfer Márcio Freire,’ the statement read. “To the bereaved family and the big wave surfing community, our condolences.”

According to Portugal’s National Maritime Authority, Freire was practicing tow-in surfing on giant waves in Nazaré, USA Today reported. Tow-in is when surfers use artificial assistance, like a jet ski, to catch faster-moving waves, according to the BBC.

”The surfer had an accident while surfing, which left him lifeless,” the city wrote in an email to USA Today on Friday.

According to the captain of the Port of Nazaré, Freire “was towed to the beach by a partner (Lucas Chumbo) on a jet ski, already in cardio-respiratory arrest,” SurferToday, reported.

Attempts to revive the surfer failed, authorities said.

Freire was one of three Brazilian surfers who were dubbed “Mad Dogs” after conquering the giant wave “Jaws” in Hawaii, Reuters reported. The trio was featured in a 2016 documentary of the same name.

Freire began surfing at an early age, picking up medals and trophies in Brazil’s northeastern area of Bahia, The New York Times reported. After moving to Hawaii in the 1990s, Freire surfed the “Jaws” wave without being towed in, a feat previously believe to be impossible.

“Today we lost a great man, a very good friend and a legendary surfer, Marcio Freire,” sports Fred Pompermayer wrote in an Instagram post. “He was such a happy spirit, always with a smile on his face.”

The area where Freire died has some of the world’s largest waves in the world, caused by the Nazaré Canyon on the seabed off the Portugal coast, the BBC reported. At that location in October 2020, German surfer Sebastian Steudtner set the world record for the biggest wave ever surfed.

According to SurferToday, Freire’s body was taken to the Legal Medicine Institute in the central Portugal city of Leiria.

“I never made a living from surfing. I never made money from surfing,” Freire told the podcast “Let’s Surf” in an interview late last year. “I had very few times -- counting them on my fingers -- money that came from surfing.”

“I was more of a soul surfer.”

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