Mason Barnes has quietly been going about the business of surfing the biggest waves on Earth. People are definitely noticing. Photos: (L) Mason Barnes/Instagram (R) Are Frapwell
Mason Barnes might not be a household name in the big-wave surfing world yet, but in light of recent events, he’s well on his way to becoming one. In late February, Barnes whipped into a monstrous wave at Nazaré and could have whipped himself into the history books, as well. Prior to that, he was on The Ultimate Surfer. Over the last few years, his career has been quietly blowing up, due mostly to the fact that he’s simply doing what he loves to do: surf the biggest and best waves he can find. And as it turns out, people like to watch that.
His recent Nazaré wave is being touted as a possible 100-footer, the elusive triple digit wave height that every big-wave surfer has their eyes on. And although Barnes is hopeful that he’ll be the one to finally lay claim to it, he’s not all that concerned with the actual height of the wave.
“I was just thankful to be there and ride that wave and to be a part of that day,” he told me. “Just share those memories, you know, with everyone who was there. That’s the best part for sure.”
It is, after all, almost impossible to accurately measure the height of a wave. Barnes, in fact, thinks that the 100-foot barrier may have already been broken.
“I do think a lot of waves ridden out there are in the 100-foot range,” he said. “Put a tape measure from the top to the bottom, and it’s got to be 100 feet. But I think there are a lot of other factors that you have to take into account.”
When I caught up with Barnes, he’d just landed in Spain. He was in the car, driving to France, pointing himself towards Hossegor. The Atlantic has been wild this year, and Barnes is making sure he’s squeezing every last drop out of it. When we spoke, he’d been in Europe for two weeks, bouncing from spot to spot, chasing giant swell. That day at Nazaré, however, was not a day that he expected to get a wave quite so… big. He’s surfed Nazaré a lot over the last few years, and aside from this most recent wave, one session stands out to him. It was in October of 2020, during the Epsilon swell. Barnes rode one of the biggest waves of the day. That wave, however, was a little different than his most recent.
“Honestly, it was very clean,” he said about his 2022 wave. “I didn’t have to go full survival mode to actually make the wave like I did in 2020. I kind of I got to actually surf it and just kind of cruise, which was nice. The wave I had in October of 2020… It felt like it was 200 feet. This last one was a lot more enjoyable. I didn’t even know it was that big.”
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Barnes is originally from Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. He was lucky enough, however, to spend most of his time when he was young on the North Shore, which is now where he calls home. But he’s quick to point out that the waves in North Carolina can get really good.
“There are a lot of really good big wave surfers there,” he said. “Underground guys that totally love to send it and are actually good at it. There are heavy waves. It’s not a place where there are just small waves. Big, good waves kind of fly under the radar. It definitely helped me become who I am.”
Growing up, his father had a house on the North Shore of Oahu, and he began to cut his teeth in the bigger stuff early. Before he was a teenager, he towed into his first big wave at an outer reef.
“Garrett McNamara towed me in when I was like 12 years old for the first time,” he remembered. “That was my first introduction to big waves. He’s been friends with my dad for a long time. Since that day, I’ve known that this is what I want to do. At the time, I thought the waves were giant, but looking back at it, it wasn’t even that big. I just thought, ‘this is the best feeling in the world.’ I wanted more and more and more.”
Over the years, McNamara took Barnes under his wing. Now, he credits McNamara with teaching him pretty much everything he knows about surfing big waves. Talking with him, though, it’s clear that he isn’t exactly aware of just how good he really is. He knows where he wants to go with surfing, but he speaks as though it’s a long way off instead of a place he’s currently at. When I asked him whether his rise to global surf fame was something he had been consciously working towards, he paused for a beat. Then he chuckled.
“I mean, it’s kind of naturally happened,” he answered. “But I mean, that’s the goal. I want to be recognized as one of the best in the world. I’ve been trying to put myself in places that’s going to kind of make that happen. And luckily lately, it’s been going my way. It’s been paying off. So I guess it’s just kind of all unfolding and the work is finally paying off. The hard years of traveling and training are just starting to add up.”
When the wave at Nazaré first hit the eyes of the surfing public, it was roundly discounted. Surfer magazine spent pages telling readers that Portugal’s canyon-driven powerhouse didn’t really count. “It’s back, like a cold sore.” Taylor Paul wrote in a 2013 piece entitled Nazaré Canyon Reality Check. “Nazaré Canyon, the wave that sometimes isn’t a wave because a wave has a crest and a trough, and Nazaré often lacks the latter.”
But after a few years, people came to their senses and realized that, despite the differences from a wave like, for instance, Teahupo’o or Pe’ahi, Nazaré is indeed a wave to be respected.
“It’s just way harder to read,” Barnes said. “It’s much different looking than your normal wave, like Jaws or something. You literally just have to guess. You just have to say to yourself, ‘yeah, this one’s going to do it, and hopefully not get lipped in the head.'”
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Surfing a wave like Nazaré, when it gets past a certain size, becomes a team sport. Surfers require a Jet Ski pilot who is knowledgable about the wave. Since a surfer is often quite literally placing their life in the pilot’s hands, the tow partner relationship is generally a close one. Barnes’ pilot for his 2022 wave, however, wasn’t someone he knew all that well. It was Pierre Caley, a French surfer with a wealth of experience at Nazaré.
“We’d never met until this trip, actually,” Barnes told me. “A bunch of amazing surfers recommended him, so we met and made it happen. It was definitely a big step to just go out there with someone who I had just met, but he’s an amazing surfer and an amazing waterman. The best people in the world told me that he’s super talented. He already had plenty of amazing waves this year, so he was psyched to drive for me that day.”
Although Barnes has already done more than enough to prove to the world that he’s one of the best, he’s not done. That’s likely a trait that you’ll find in most people who are successful in the kinds of things that he’s successful in — a need to push the limits, no matter how far they’ve already pushed them. Next on the list? The biggest barrel ever.
“There are definitely barrels out there,” he said. “My wave in particular, I probably could have sat way deeper and got barreled on it. There’s definitely potential to get an 80-foot barrel out there, which would change the sport forever. That’s kind of where my eyes are at. That’s the goal. That’s what I want to do. I just have to wait for the right wave and trust that it’s going to stay open.”
People often say that you’re born a certain type of person. In talking with Mason, it’s abundantly clear that he won’t stop doing what he loves. He doesn’t need the fame or the glory. He clearly had something instilled in him when Garrett McNamara towed him into that first wave. As he told Garrett when he was 12 years old, he just wants “more and more and more.”
