Nazaré is a pretty special place. It’s just a quiet little fishing town that, as of relatively recently, wasn’t much of a surf destination. Then, in 2011, Garrett McNamara towed into a wave at a beach called Praia do Norte that sent a shockwave out to not just the surfing world, but the general public as well. But it wasn’t the same old story of surfing discovery that you might expect. That ride, interestingly, was part of a choreographed plan to attract tourists. Now, people like Nic von Rupp are carving careers around surfing there.
“For centuries, Nazaré was a fishing village,” I wrote for a piece back in 2022. “The soul of the place lived inside the fish the townspeople caught and sold, but the waves were always there. They were always dangerous. ‘It was known worldwide precisely for death,’ Jorge Barroso, the former Mayor of Nazaré, told Vox. ‘For the harshness of the sea.’”
Fisherman thrived there for decades, but when commercial fishing outfits targeted the area, the fish populations were decimated by trawlers. The once-vibrant community began to struggle as their most valued resource was caught in huge numbers, and the community was forced to look to another industry to support itself. That industry? Tourism. Which is where McNamara came in.
“He got an invite to the place with an interesting proposal. 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.”
Cut to today, and Nic von Rupp has a win at the Nazaré Tow-in Challenge and many gigantic sessions under his belt at a wave once deemed un-surfable. As I said, it’s the wave that von Rupp made his career on, so in the video above, he pays tribute to it.
“This episode of Portugal Back-to-Back is a collection of the best and worst moments Nic has experienced in this fascinating, puzzling and terrifying surf spot,” von Rupp’s team wrote. “Dare to face your nightmares and dreams eventually will come true.”
