This dream began to take shape during the next decade. In 2002, the Club of Alternative Sports of Nazaré (Clube de Desportos Alternativos da Nazaré - CDAN) is founded by Paulo Salvador, Jorge Anastácio, Miguel Prates, Rui Barreira, Dino Casimiro and other young people who wanted to boost the surf and bodyboard in Nazaré. The initial objectives of CDAN were training surfing and bodyboarding athletes, and also the promotion of Nazaré as a national and international destination for surf and bodyboard.

Since then, the CDAN's team has already obtained a considerable number of titles: in eight years, the junior bodyboard team won 10 national titles and 11 national titles, having also won the Cup of Portugal in 2005 with the bodyboard athletes. The most reputed CDAN athletes are Teresa Almeida, bodyboard world champion in 2014, Antonio Cardoso, 12th ranked in the bodyboard world ranking (APB) at the end of 2015 and also Dino Carmo, 6 times junior national bodyboard champion.

In parallel, CDAN began organizing events for the inter-circuit members, the regional surf circuit and bodyboard and, later, also the national circuit, as their athletes were evolving in these competitions. In 2002, this group of young people organized one stage of national bodyboard Open circuit. The near drowning of one of the participants led to the decision to cancel the championship: the sea at Praia do Norte was too big for many of the athletes. This decision aroused a great debate among the surf and bodyboard community, as other riders wanted to compete in these extreme conditions. Following this controversy, the decision is made to organize a special bodyboard event at Praia do Norte, which would gather the best athletes in order to be challenged by bigger waves. Thus, in 2003, the first Special Edition event takes place at Praia do Norte, organized by Dino Casimiro, Paulo Caldeira and Nuno Amado, with the support of athletes as Nuno Trovão, Gonçalo Estrela and Renato Hall.

A founding member of CDAN, Dino Casimiro also reflects on the importance of this event, "it was realized that the Praia do Norte was a unique beach in Portugal. It was the only beach known then by the bodyboard community that had waves that could rival the other spots worldwide". Since then, the concept of Special Edition has evolved and grown over the years.

To the point that during the Special Edition 2007, bodyboarder Jaime Jesus was captured "flying" by photojournalist Miguel Barreira, who took an extraordinary photo worth a 3rd place in the World Press Photo sports category. For Dino Casimiro, this photograph marked the "first big boom of Nazaré", communication wise, at the national and international level.

The photo of Miguel Barreira – himself a surfer - was published and reported by major national media outlets - and had broad international dissemination, in particular, through the itinerant exhibition in major world capitals of the winning photos of World Press Photo.

This photo caught the attention of the newly formed municipal company Nazaré Qualifica administration, namely Pedro Pisco, as stated by Paulo Salvador, founding partner of CDAN. Nazaré Qualifica then formed a team, composed by Pedro Pisco, Paulo Caldeira, Paulo Salvador and Dino Casimiro, who during the initial phase aimed to organize a world championship event for bodyboard. After several failed attempts to find sponsors for this bodyboarding event - and keeping its strategy to produce events that were financially self-sustainable - this working group decides to proceed to the organization of surfing events, as this modality had greater acceptance by the big advertisers.

At this stage, the brand "Praia do Norye" is created, in which all the communication of Nazaré waves would be built upon, remeber Paulo Salvador, highlighting the participation of Paulo Caldeira and Nuno Ribeiro, from the events company Fourlines. In the the strategy set, Nazaré Qualifica had the responsibility of organizing events, and national and international promotion of the brand "Praia do Norte". Thus, this municipal company signed a contract for two years with the surfers national association, for the organization of the last stage the national surfing circuit as well as for the organization of the awards ceremony "Portugal Surf Awards". Nazaré Qualifica also took over the organization of the Special Edition, which although not financially self-sustaining, was an event already with national and international projection, and Paulo Salvador notes: "very important in the context of the sport in Nazaré, unlike the surf which had no expression at the local community. These events were "a huge success," says Paulo Salvador, always with the collaboration of the CDAN. It should be noted that in 2009, this working group brought to Praia do Norte for the Special Edition a living legend of bodyboarding: Mike Stewart, 9 times world bodyboard champion.

Also in 2009, during a preparatory meeting for the following year, Paulo Caldeira and Nuno Ribeiro presented to the group a proposal for an international surf event - "The North Canyon" - under the umbrella brand "Praia do Norte - Big Wave Surf Resort in Europe ". This new event would consist of a tow-in tournament in Praia do Norte. At the launch of the first stone of the High Performance Centre of Surf of Nazareé, in May 2009, this event was publicly announced, remembers Paulo Salvador, which at that time was expected to occur during the months of October and November 2010. However, despite all efforts, the working group failed to secure the necessary funding to move forward with "The North Canyon". Since their strategy has to procude self-sustaining events, as stressed by Paulo Salvador, the team decided to reduce the cost structure to the maximum. Thus, arises the idea of turning the championship into a special exploration action, with only one surfer.

In this context, Dino Casimiro recalls that in 2005 he sent a picture of a Praia do Norte gigant wave to Garrett McNamara, inviting him to come to surf the giant waves of Praia do Norte, to which he had responded almost immediately. Since then, Dino Casimiro sent photos and emails often to Garrett McNamara, to report on the sea conditions in Praia do Norte. Until one day, McNamara calls it the middle of the night to tell him that during the week a 8 meters swell was expected at Nazaré, asking him if it was possible to go and if there was available jet skis. Dino Casimiro answered that this was not the right time to come, even if it were possible to arrange the jet skis and all the support necessary.

Later, during the Special Edition 2009 all the conditions were in place: big swell, staff and security support equipment at sea, and also communication personal. Dino Casimiro sends information to Garrett McNamara, but at that time he did not answer. Later, he came to know that McNamara failed this exceptional swell, because he was without email acess. Finally, in 2010, a new contact with Garrett McNamara is made, inviting him to a very special project, which was renamed to "The North Canyon - an exploration by Garrett McNamara."