You may or may not be aware of a little wave in a little town called Nazaré. There’s a little lighthouse on a little cliff that overlooks a little bay where little waves roll lazily towards a little beach. Ha ha! Just kidding! It’s the most psychotic place in the surfing world. It is a place of moving mountains, a place where surfing is redefined.
“Surfing” at maxing Nazaré is an entirely different beast. When the horizon darkens with waves of almost unimaginable size, tiny specks whizzing around on Jetskis in the biggest lineup in the ocean scurry like ants towards it. Surfers inevitably fall on waves the size of buildings, nearly drowning while their partners scurry back towards them, searching desperately for a neoprene-encased needle in a frothy haystack. You may or may not have watched the Nazaré Challenge, blissfully unaware that the swell on its heels was one that Garrett McNamara claimed was going to be the “biggest and best conditions we have ever seen in the history of surfing!!!” A bold call, but a call from a man who knows Nazaré’s wave like no one else. The WSL smartly decided to broadcast the tow-session live—and although the swell peaked a little early and the day was not as over-the-top gigantic as everyone was hoping for, it is still worth a watch.
