Garrett McNamara has changed surfing. He has played a big role in turning surfing into what it is today, especially in the big wave arena. His life has been an interesting one, to say the least, and he recently sat down with Tony Hawk and Jason Ellis for an episode of the Hawk vs Wolf podcast.
A few years ago, I spent a couple of days with Garrett, his wonderful wife Nicole, and their son, Barrel. They’ve since had a few more children, but back then, it was just the three of them. Garrett is a force; a bundle of energy who vibrates his way through life, his mind and body searching for the next source of excitement.
He wasn’t born on the North Shore, although he certainly became a staple of it. At around 11 years old, he moved to that hallowed stretch of sand and almost immediately took to surfing. McNamara liked the bigger stuff, and soon was surfing Waimea, Sunset, and the outer reefs. Over the course of the next decade, he and brother Liam made a name for themselves among some of the hardest charging surfers of the time. Then, when tow surfing caught fire, McNamara attached himself to the head of the spear. His mission in life became finding the biggest waves in the world, and it’s a mission he has stuck to until today.
His hand in bringing Nazaré to the masses can’t be understated. For centuries, Nazaré was a fishing village. The waves, of course, were there, but for the most part, they were deemed to dangerous to ride.
“It was known worldwide precisely for death,” Jorge Barroso, the former Mayor of Nazaré, told Vox. “For the harshness of the sea.”
When big fishing corporations moved into the area, though, the fisherman who’d made their living from the sea were quickly finding themselves out of work. Trawlers slurped up vast numbers of fish, depleting the once-vibrant communities of their most valued resource. It forced the community of Nazaré to find another industry, and it looked to tourism. And that’s where Gmac came in.
“He got an invite to the place with an interesting proposal,” The Inertia wrote. “They wanted him to try and surf the place. With any luck, it would draw the attention of the surfing world and boost winter tourism. McNamara trained for a full year before surfing the wave that lit the world on fire. And now, all these years later, the plan has worked. Today, five out of the six biggest waves ever surfed have been at Nazaré. Tourists come in droves to stand atop the now-famous cliff and gawk as people like Maya Gabeira, Nic von Rupp, Rodrigo Koxa, and many others tempt fate.”
In the conversation above, McNamara and Nicole talked with Hawk and Ellis in a wide ranging chat. They talked surfing etiquette, getting hurt in front of loved ones, how to find which way is up in a hold down, the first time Garrett realized he was a pro surfer, who the greatest surf instructor to ever live is, and if Garrett will ever surf a bigger wave.
