It’s kind of hard to sleep when all the doors and windows in the house are shaking; it took me a few minutes to work it out, as outside there wasn’t a breath of wind. The strange thing was it was incessant, not just a one off rattle or shake. A continuous noise, a constant reminder that in the morning I would possibly see the biggest waves I’ve ever seen. Bizarrely though I slept really well.
With a small window of opportunity everything was pretty much prepped days in advance, what boards were working, safety, flotation, all we had to do was put the skis in the water and head out. We’ve surfed here so many times now it was just another day. As we left the harbour at first light and my first glimpse of the waves the reality hit, it was huge. At first I wasn’t even sure about surfing; my mission was to put Garrett on the biggest wave possible.
Some opportunities only come once and when I had a chance to grab the rope I wasn’t going to let it pass, I’ve been wanting this so much for years and I feel truly lucky to be in this situation. The waves were dangerous, giant, fast and incredibly hard to read, I didn’t want to make any mistakes or take any silly risks but I also wanted to try and get to the bottom of one of these waves and try and actually surf it (which is surprisingly hard to do believe it or not,) rather than just hop down the shoulder.
I got a couple fun ones like this shot from Jose Pinto above. Thanks to Garrett for the tow and inspiration, Hugo Vau who drove safety and all the crew I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with and made me feel so welcome.
Thank you Nazare, you have the biggest, scariest most beautiful waves I’ve ever seen.
