The 80-Foot Monster of Nazaré

The Nazaré Canyon

About 130 miles off the coast of Portugal, the seafloor drops into one of the largest submarine canyons in Europe: the Nazaré Canyon. It plunges nearly 16,000 feet deep and runs like a highway directly toward Praia do Norte beach. When deep-water Atlantic swells roll over this canyon, the underwater topography focuses and amplifies the wave energy into a single concentrated corridor. Think of it as a giant funnel. Energy that would normally spread across hundreds of miles of coastline gets compressed into one narrow breakpoint, producing waves that just don't happen anywhere else on the planet with this kind of regularity.

Praia do Norte

The beach at Praia do Norte faces directly into the mouth of the canyon. The Nazaré Lighthouse (Farol da Nazaré) sits on a cliff 360 feet above sea level, and on big days spectators standing up there still feel the spray. The beach itself is a violent shorebreak backed by cliffs. There's no gentle paddle-out channel. Surfers get towed in by jet ski and, if they survive, picked up by jet ski. That's it. There is no other option.

Garrett McNamara's “Discovery” — 2011

Big wave surfing existed long before Nazaré. Jaws in Maui, Mavericks in California, Teahupo'o in Tahiti were already legendary. But Nazaré was completely unknown to the surfing world until Hawaiian surfer Garrett McNamara was invited by the local municipality to investigate the wave in 2010. In November 2011, McNamara rode a 78-foot face that was certified as the Guinness World Record for the largest wave ever surfed. A quiet Portuguese fishing town became the center of the big wave universe basically overnight, and it hasn't let go of that title since.

The Wipeouts

An 80-foot wave moving at 60 mph carries roughly 1,000 tons of water in a single lip throw. When a surfer falls, they get driven 20 to 50 feet underwater by a force equivalent to being hit by a bus. Then the next wave does it again. And the next. Surfers routinely hold their breath for 30 to 45 seconds underwater while being ragdolled. Some get held down for multiple waves.

Inflatable safety vests have saved countless lives. Surfers can trigger them to get back to the surface fast. But they don't always work when the wave is strong enough to hold you down regardless.

Maya Gabeira's Near-Death & Comeback

In October 2013, Brazilian big wave surfer Maya Gabeira wiped out at Nazaré and was pulled unconscious from the water. She wasn't breathing. Carlos Burle dragged her onto the beach and performed CPR until she was resuscitated. She broke her fibula and nearly died. The surfing world said she had overstepped, that she had no business riding waves that big.

Seven years later, in February 2020, Gabeira went back to the same beach and rode a 73.5-foot wave, setting the Guinness World Record for the largest wave ever surfed by a woman. She came back and broke the record at the place that almost killed her.

The Jet Ski Teams

Big wave surfing at Nazaré would be impossible without jet ski rescue teams. These are elite water safety professionals who ride into the impact zone after every wave to pull surfers out before the next set arrives. They operate in conditions that would capsize most boats. In January 2020, Alex Botelho was knocked unconscious by a collision between two waves and rescued by jet ski on live television. The rescue teams are the reason the death count is still zero among surfers.