The wave at Nazaré is a freak of nature. Some of the Atlantic’s most powerful storms are pushed into an underwater canyon, the massive energy funneled straight towards the famous lighthouse and over the shelf. For a long time, it wasn’t even considered surfable on those big days. And then, after people started surfing it, it wasn’t considered a “real wave” by a lot of big wave surfers. Nowadays, however, that’s changed. Nazaré is recognized as the biggest wave in the world. And it was really, really big in late October. Nic Von Rupp lives for those days, and he’s been dreaming of one just like this for a long time.
“I always thought that the day would come where we would see a huge, huge swell with clean offshore winds,” he wrote. “Since I’ve been looking at weather and storm maps, I’ve never ever seen a forecast of conditions like this. Mother Nature delivered some of the craziest cleanest waves ever seen at Nazaré. A day for the history books; swells like this happen very few times in a lifetime. So happy to witness this day and see everyone back to shore safely. We will pray for another swell like this.”
