These storm swells off Portugal are then magnified by two major geological features that converge at the Nazaré cliff: the biggest and most dramatic underwater canyon in Europe, deeper in places than the Grand Canyon, and a huge headland that juts into the sea. The Portuguese coast gets twice as much storm swell as, say, the United States East Coast. “Massive storms that cruise by Greenland and Iceland-their wind energy is pointed directly at Portugal,” Feddersen says. Three major forces combine to make Nazaré such a monster wave machine, says Falk Feddersen, a professor of physical oceanography at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and a surfer himself. But Nazaré consistently produces the biggest waves in the world-five of the six biggest waves ever surfed were at Nazaré, including the Guinness World Record of 80 feet. In each case, a dramatic rise in the sea floor close to the coast concentrates swell energy, thrusting the water upward into a monstrous crest that breaks as it rolls toward the shore. Massive surfable waves 70 to 80 feet high form in just a handful of spots around the world, such as Mavericks in California and Jaws in Maui.
Since 2011, when it was discovered by the big-wave surfing community, it has become a mecca for surfers seeking to test their nerve, skill, and luck on the ocean’s version of Mt. Nazaré is like no other wave on the planet. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. It’s like a bomb.” At Nazaré, Gabeira has broken the world record for the biggest wave ever surfed by a woman: 73.5 feet. When the lip of the wave breaks and it hits the bottom, it’s like an explosion. On the really big waves, there’s a noise that’s indescribable. It’s very instinctive and very, very intense. You have to navigate, do jumps, a lot of adjusting. (About 45 miles per hour.) “The water is changing under your feet as you’re going down.
“The amount of speed you get going down those waves is incredible,” says Maya Gabeira of Brazil. For big wave surfers, it’s the ride of their lives. When conditions at Nazaré are right, in the months between October and March, modern-day Prometheans zipper down the black well of the wave’s face, chasing the violent edge of the crest’s shadow, hurtling desperately toward the light. Surging vertically to a height of up to 100 feet just behind an ancient lighthouse, the wave has all the menace of a massive tsunami, but unlike a tsunami, it can be surfed. When you first see the leviathan arch of the world’s biggest wave tower over the cliffs of Nazaré, Portugal, its crown of angry froth exploding onto itself, you might wonder if it isn’t the tongue of God come to swallow the Earth.
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