Nazaré, Portugal – The spot of gigantic waves
Finally (!!!) I got to travel to Nazaré, Portugal.
‘Why Nazaré?’ I got asked this question at least a hundred times during the last weeks.
Nazaré is a seaside town located almost halfway between Lisbon and Porto on the Portuguese Silver Coast. It’s an absolutely magical place. Magical is not the right word actually. It’s the spot and home of gigantic waves, where the energy of the waves and the force of nature literally takes your breath, shuts down your brain, and you stand there with your mouth wide open sighing only a silent ‘wow’. Once you reboot from this shock, you completely forget that you are a human being and have only one life to live, you just want to rush into the waves and get onto the top of those giants! Like NOW!
The different types of waves and the huge energy is formed thanks to an underwater canyon. The area is very complicated. There is no safe zone, only a huge, hundred meter long rock reaching into the ocean and a beach break. This video explains the science of this magical force.
When it comes to Nazaré as a surfing spot, it’s not about big waves or surfing really… It’s about if you can survive it or not!
Why would you risk your life with the Nazaré waves?
With extreme sports you achieve an adrenaline rush that shifts away your focus from the everyday problems to the ‘here and now’. And adrenaline is like a drug. You need more and more of it. So you need to shift your limits too.
Big wave surfing is more than just finding a new limit, that you need to reach from that on. Gigantic waves raise you to another level. And not only the adrenaline bit. The whole of you, that you can’t really explain.
Your chance to survive these giants is dependent on quite a few factors, not only you.
Big wave surfing is not an individual sport. It is an absolute team effort and work with the towing partners, the rescue team, and even the board designer and the wetsuit maker has a huge impact on the ride.
Kelly Slater on Nazaré surfing:
( Sorry champ, not on your side this time.)
Getting into these waves cleans your brain, cleans your thoughts and you need to start to look at things differently. You’ve put yourself into a life threatening situation, where every move and decision counts, and you don’t have the luxury to hesitate or mess it up. Once you accept this, you get into a flow. Nothing is important anymore, nothing you’ve achieved in the past, nothing you’ve planned for the future, it’s just THAT MOMENT. And when you survive, you start to appreciate limits, nature and life…
And obviously… your brain starts to shout… LET’S DO IT AGAIN!
Nazaré on foils
So what’s next? Now, we want to push our limits to another level. Riding Nazaré giants on foils. Yep! Flying above those incredible waves.
This image was simply stuck in my brain during the last couple of years. I had many questions and this winter I started to found the answers to them.
After meeting some really cool guys, who are amongst the top in giant waves and on foils as well, we started to talk more and more about riding Nazaré waves on foils.
It’s a project that needs time to get ready and create the right gear for these extreme conditions. We want to design the board, foils, as well as the impact suit and work out properly, knowing our responsibility.
The M8 brand won’t be the first though, as there are already many guys flying above those waves. It seems that there will be even a World record attempt during this winter on foils.
Soon we will publish our gear for the #NazaréonFoils challenge. Which will include a board and a set of foils with different wings. More info to follow on Instagram. Read about it here.
Hopefully during the 2020 season we will see the sensation of foiling on the Nazaré Giants!