Praia do Norte is a wonder of the world. The waves that break there are unique, their energy funneling through the Nazare Canyon before reaching up towards the Portuguese sky in immense proportions. Although I have been to Portugal in the past, the sleepy little fishing village turned big wave mecca has, until now, eluded me. When the first real swell of the year popped up on the forecast during a quick vacation, I figured I would be an idiot to miss seeing it break in person. And although it didn’t produce the terrifyingly huge waves the place has become synonymous with, it took my breath away. My breath and the hundreds of others who gathered to see it.
I, like many of you, I assume, had only a cursory understanding of the town of Nazare. It’s known mostly for the wave, but the narrow cobblestone streets that sit in front of it are among the most charming I’ve ever had the pleasure of exploring. My fiancé Stevie and I arrived mid-afternoon, cheap and wonderful bottles of vinho tinto in our bags. The sea mist fogged the air, dimming the sun’s brightness like a gossamer shroud. The funicular, a small, cable-pulled tram that takes visitors to the top of the cliff, made its way up its steep track in the distance. The town is mostly varying shades of blue and white, punctuated by the bright orange of the rooftops that blend pleasantly with the wide stretch of sand that drops precipitously into the sea.
After dropping our bags in the hotel, Stevie and I paid our fare and joined the masses bound for the top of the cliff. There were far more people than I expected, especially considering the earliness of the swell. The little village atop the cliff is now centered around tourism, thanks to a campaign where the Portuguese tourism board recruited Garrett McNamara to be its big wave personality in hopes of saving Nazare from the ravages of the fishing industry.
Rum-filled pineapples with gaudy straws in hand, we shouldered our way to the edge of the cliff, fighting for the best view. We were greeted with wind-whipped, stormy surf. To my uneducated eyes, it appeared wholly unsurfable. Huge, yes, but torn to shreds by a stiff onshore wind that threw fat raindrops from the passing squalls above. My phone dinged with severe weather alerts, warning us of potentially devastating rains, wind, and waves.
Only two ski teams were out in the water, bobbing amid the unreadable waves that came from all directions. I doubted that anyone would be able to put themselves in the position to catch one, but after about half an hour and one rum-filled pineapple, a tiny speck of a surfer let go of a rope. The crowd collectively gasped as he, dressed in a green and black suit and with a shock of cropped blond hair, flew down the wave. From far above, it was hard to gauge the real height of the waves, but with a surfer for reference, it became clear that even this swell, which was far smaller than the ones that grab the attention of the wider world outside of surfing, was producing waves at least triple overhead. The surfer kicked out to a raucous applause that was ripped away by the wind.
The small tram that takes viewers to the top of the cliff (left), and the beautiful streets of Nazare (right). Photos: Alexander Haro
I’m not one for crowds, so with a wave ridden logged in the memory banks and checked off my list of things to see, we decided to head back down the mountain and back into town. After a tourist shot of gingha, a cherry-based liquor that I could happily drown in, we found ourselves at a little Indian restaurant, playing cards on a small table, cold Super Bocks and plates of fresh garlic prawns in front of us. Glancing over my beer, I saw that shock of short blond hair and realized it was Mason Barnes, an exceedingly friendly and humble man who stole the world’s attention with a Nazare bomb a few years ago that was heard “round the world.”
We chatted briefly about the day, Mason talking himself down as I talked him up, then agreed to catch up the next day for a quick chat. Stevie and I were heading to Cascais, one of my favorite places on Earth in the morning, but Mason was determined to stay and see what the swell would do.
Barnes arrived the previous evening, and despite a nightmare flight – flights delayed then cancelled, board lost then found – and the inherent jet-lag that comes with crossing the Atlantic, he seemed completely fresh. Until this year, Barnes has been kind of winging things when it comes to surfing Nazare.
“The past couple years,” he told me, “I just kind of pick my day, and try and show up for the swell of the year, the biggest day of the year. Honestly, every time I showed up with nothing, no ski, no anything, and I just start reaching out to people and just kind of finagling something. Somehow it always worked out, but It’s always a pain. That’s only worth doing when it’s the best day of the year. It would be nice to surf these medium sized days, but I just wasn’t able to. But this year, I finally had the opportunity to hire Eric Rebiere full time.”
For the last few months, Barnes and Rebiere have had a plan. Rebiere is one of the best Jet Ski drivers at Nazare, and Barnes could not be happier to have the opportunity.
“We’ve had this plan that we’re working together for a couple months now, so we’ve been kind of waiting just for the first swell of the season to come out here,” Barnes explained. “We were going to work together and just see how it goes. He was pretty much saying that no one’s going to be here and the waves would be super giant. ‘You’ve been training your ass off, so get over here. Let’s do this.’ It’s not normally a swell that I would fly over here for, but the fact was that it was the first swell of the season and there was potential for it to be huge. Now that I have him, it was just a no-brainer.”
In the lineup with Barnes and Rebiere were Justine Dupont, Fred David, and Sebastian Steudtner. A light lineup these days, for certain.
“We were the only people out,” Barnes said. “Last year, Sebastian and Eric kind of opened the door with surfing on these onshore days. This wave still has a lot of potential, even when the wind is onshore. If it’s giant, you could potentially ride the biggest wave ever if the wind’s onshore, because the waves are so big, it doesn’t matter how windy or how bumpy it is. If you pick the right wave, which Eric is extremely good at doing, you can still find a clean face.”
As I mentioned, to my untrained eye, the conditions looked completely unsurfable. But to Rebiere, Barnes, Steudtner, and DuPont, the potential was obvious. It’s days like these that make surfing the giant days possible.
“You know, most people, when they see those conditions, they just turn their heads the other way, but they’re so capable of driving on those days,” Barnes explained. “And Eric is like, ‘let’s go. Let’s go, find some waves and see what happens.’ And sure enough, we got out there – and what I saw from the beach earlier, I didn’t think I was going to surf. It was crazy bumpy and there was too much going on. But we got out there and he’s like, ‘grab the rope!’ and he just put me in a perfect little wave, right? Like, within five minutes. He really is the best in the world.”
Surfing a place like Nazare isn’t the same as surfing a normal wave. Surfers need to be much more calculated, because the risk versus reward is incredibly high. There were only about six waves ridden all day before the crew decided to head in, but it was worth everyone’s time.
“I mean, there’s so much that could go wrong, because there were still some really big waves coming through, and the water was pushing into the cliff.” Barnes said. “So I was just like, ‘I got a couple waves. I’m good.’ Sebastian caught two waves, and then Justine caught two waves, and then we kind of called it and just headed back to harbor. The more waves you ride, the higher the odds are of something happening, you know? If you’ve had a couple already, how many more times do you want to chance that? There’s always that part of you that wants another one, but that’s the balance. You have to learn to judge yourself.
I wondered then if the cheering crowds would have any influence on decisions like that. Barnes, though, was quick to dispel the notion that the influence of the masses would push people much further than they’d push themselves.
“First of all,” he explained, “if I was in the lineup yesterday and Eric didn’t truly think it was safe and a good idea to ride waves, he wouldn’t have let me get one. And, you know, people being on the cliff wouldn’t change his decision. That being said, if they are on the cliff and you do ride a wave and you hear them screaming on top of their lungs, it’s one of the best feelings in the world. But I would never let that persuade my decision to surf or not.”
When it comes to the surfer/driver relationship, trust is the most important thing. Riding waves that could easily kill a person requires a deep-seated belief that the person entrusted with your safety will come to your rescue, if and when they need to. For Barnes, Rebiere has that trust, and most, if not all, of the people who surf Nazare share that understanding.
“Those guys, you know that they’re there because they’re ready to be there, and they’re not second guessing anything that’s going on,” he said. “I think all the safety and precaution that’s going into being here is so top tier nowadays that everyone understands how important it is that if you’re in the lineup, you need to be 100 percent. If you’re not, then you shouldn’t be out there. So it’s kind of just that like underlying trust that we all have for one another. I know when Eric gets on the Jet Ski, he’s ready to be on that ski, and he’s 100 percent there, ready to be there if I need him. If I could pick anyone in the world, I would pick Eric.”
Now that the first swell of the season is under his belt, Barnes is eager for more. He’ll stick around for a few more days, then head home to regroup, and as any big wave surfer does, he’ll have one eye on the forecast at all times. With a passion like his, it’s likely that he’ll stun the world again within a few months. And with any luck, I’ll be on the cliff cheering him on with the rest of the spectators.
