Nazaré is terrifying. While we often see clips of daredevils riding the behemoths at Praia do Norte, its less common to see the perspective of the jet ski operators who put them there. In this video from the Barena Film & Sports YouTube channel, we get a POV view of a jet ski driver navigating Nazare’s inside to deliver a surfer back to the lineup.
The day depicted didn’t have the mountains of water you’d see on 100 Foot Wave, but even on a ‘small’ day, navigating Nazaré is no mean feat. It’s a credit to jet ski driver Alemao de Maresias’s abilities that he manages to make it look relatively straightforward. “On an XXL day this can take them more than 20 minutes,” explains the video description. “This wasn’t that big, but it shows you how hard is to read the inside in Nazaré.” Later on, they provide an objectively horrifying description of what goes into a Nazaré jet ski rescue, “Imagine 2 to 6 meter walls of water coming to you. To start, you can not see whats behind or decide where to go. Plus the fear of that wave hitting you and making you turn the jet ski, which can lead to a life or death situation.”
