The wave that broke at Nazare on October 29, 2020, was measured at twenty-six meters, the largest ever surfed. I was not there that day. I was standing on the cliff at the Nazare Lighthouse in late September, watching swells that were merely enormous, perhaps eight meters, and wondering what kind of person looks at a wall of moving water the height of a building and thinks, 'I will ride that.' The answer, it turns out, is a very specific kind of person: big-wave surfers, a small fraternity of athletes who chase storms around the world in search of the impossible. I had come to Nazare to understand them. I left with a new definition of courage.
Why Nazare Produces Giant Waves
Nazare is a fishing town on Portugal's central coast, seventy miles north of Lisbon. It has been famous for centuries for its seafood, its traditional costumes, and its religious processions. Then, in 2011, the American surfer Garrett McNamara rode a twenty-four-meter wave here, and Nazare became the capital of big-wave surfing. The waves are caused by a submarine canyon, the Nazare Canyon, which is two hundred thirty kilometers long and five kilometers deep. The canyon funnels Atlantic swells toward the coast and amplifies them. When a storm in the North Atlantic generates a swell, the canyon focuses that energy into a single breaking wave that can exceed thirty meters. It is a natural phenomenon that exists in only a handful of places on earth.
The Town and the Culture
Nazare is not a typical surf town. It is a working-class fishing community where old women still wear seven layers of petticoats and sell dried fish on the beach. The surfers are outsiders, tolerated because they bring tourism but not fully integrated into the town's identity. I stayed in a guesthouse run by a fisherman's widow who had converted her husband's boat shed into rooms. She did not surf. She did not understand surfing. But she understood that the surfers paid their bills on time and tipped well. I spent three days watching the waves from the lighthouse, talking to surfers, and eating grilled sardines at a restaurant where the owner's son was a jet ski rescue operator. 'My mother wants me to be a fisherman,' he told me. 'I want to save lives. Nazare lets me do both.'
Learning to Surf in Nazare
I am not a big-wave surfer. I am barely a surfer at all. But Nazare has a beach break on the northern end where the waves are manageable for beginners. I took a lesson with a local instructor named Pedro, who taught me to pop up, read the wave, and fall without injuring myself. The water was cold, even in a wetsuit, and the waves were stronger than anything I had surfed in California. After two hours, my arms were too tired to paddle. Pedro told me that the best surfers in the world train for years before they attempt the giant waves at the lighthouse. 'It is not about bravery,' he said. 'It is about preparation. The brave ones are dead.'
When to Go and What to Expect
The big-wave season runs from October to March, when North Atlantic storms generate the massive swells. I visited in September, during the shoulder season, when the waves were large but not record-breaking. The town was quiet, the prices were lower, and I had the beach mostly to myself. Accommodation ranges from thirty dollars for hostels to one hundred fifty dollars for cliffside hotels with views of the break. A meal of grilled fish and vegetables costs twelve to twenty dollars. The bus from Lisbon takes two hours and costs fifteen dollars. The total cost for five days was eight hundred dollars. I did not surf a giant wave. I did not want to. But I stood on a cliff and watched someone else do it, and that was enough to change how I think about fear.
