Giant waves, whipped up by Storm Helena, battered Nazaré in Portugal on Friday but the conditions were so treacherous that no surfers dared take on the famously extreme break.

Locals said this was the biggest day of the season and maybe the biggest in several years with waves estimated to have been more than 80-feet.

Despite the fact that no-one was surfing, crowds gathered by the famous lighthouse to watch the raw power of nature.

Pedro Miranda, the filmmaker who captured this footage said: "If the wind was off-shore or a bit lighter this could’ve been easily the day for a new record-breaking wave, the big ones were true monsters."

Praia do Norte beach, near the fishing village of Nazaré, became famous worldwide for huge waves in 2011 when Hawaiian surfer Garrett McNamara set a world record for the largest wave ever surfed at 78-feet. In 2017 that record was broken by Brazilian surfer Rodrigo Koxa, who successfully rode a wave measuring 80-feet.