Back in February of 2022, Rafael Tapia found himself on the end of a rope getting towed into a very large wave at Nazaré, during one of the biggest swells of the season. Size-wise, the waves were hovering around 60 feet, but Tapia knows what he’s doing out there.
He also knows that one can’t surf big Nazaré without expecting to take the most brutal beatings a surfer could ever take. Steve Cummings, also known as Jacuzzi Surfer, was there to document the day.
Tapia took off on the first wave of a set, which is generally the cleanest. With a swell like the one that day, though, falling on the first wave is not a situation you want to be in. “If you fall on that first wave,” Cummings says, “you could be in for the beat down of your life.”
And a beat down it was. After falling, Tapia skipped like a stone across the face of the wave before the whitewash caught up to him. When he finally popped back up — likely already a little gassed — he saw several more enormous waves on the horizon.
“After the safety crew made several attempts at rescuing Rafa from the harsh whoopin’,” Cummings continued, “Rafa was just too deep in the wave to get a good attempt at a rescue. But after what felt like an hour, Rafa was finally picked up.”
Tapia, though, wasn’t phased. He returned to surf shortly after this harrowing experience, but it’s not likely he’ll forget it anytime soon. Whatever doesn’t kill you, right?
