You’d hardly call this opening day at Nazaré. Granted, there were some jet skis slinging folks into waves off the point on October 16 but there wasn’t exactly a Super Bowl-sized crowd up on the cliff to watch it all. It begs the question: if a wave breaks at Nazaré but fewer than 1,000 photographers were perched next to the lighthouse by 4 a.m. to capture the action, well, did that wave even break?
If you’re a fan of Nazaré then all that nonsense doesn’t matter. The fact is that the world’s biggest wave — the one with the most realistic chance of producing surfing’s first-ever true 100-foot ride — just came to life. It won’t be long before we’re all gawking at purple blobs hauling ass through the Atlantic Ocean. It won’t be long before people abandon their winter posts on the North Shore at the drop of a dime, booking red eyes straight to Lisbon. It won’t be long before a lot of people (including this website) are making 100-foot claims at the end of every XXL session, months or even years before official measurements inevitably come back in at the 80-foot range. And it won’t be long before this (usually) sleepy little fishing town is buzzing for another winter.
Last season was a busy one. A new world record was established in May when Guinness verified Sebastian Steudtner’s 2020 ride at 86 feet. While the record-setting wave wasn’t produced in the 2021-2022 winter, the announcement from Guinness did set a new bar for the big wave community. Meanwhile, Mason Barnes became a household name in the surf world, and a session on February 25 produced a gaggle of rides that may come back with world record-setting measurements when it’s all said and done. All this is just a reminder that 2022-2023 holds the same potential for new boundaries in big wave surfing.
Nazare’s showing signs of life. It’s time to keep an eye on the Atlantic.
