I’m not a surfer but have been around it having been raised in Southern California. I love to watch the big wave contests from Hawaii and other places around the world. But my favorite has always been watching on television the huge waves during the winter at Nazaré, Portugal. Now we were in a car driving North from Lisbon and there was the turn-off. We drove through the old part of town and then walked to the famous lighthouse point from where the huge waves emanate.
Nazare is one of the most popular seaside resorts in the Silver Coast of Portugal. Located in Central Portugal, it is one of the most popular surfing destination because of its very high breaking waves that form due to the presence of the underwater Nazaré Canyon. The highest wave ever surfed was recorded here in 2017 at 80 feet. We stopped by to see the lighthouse where the record waves have been, but on our day there was no huge surf. We watched the waves for a while and then found a wonderful fish restaurant overlooking the city.
Nazaré is a very popular surfing destination because of the very high breaking waves that form due to the presence of the underwater Nazaré Canyon. The canyon increases and converges the incoming ocean swell which, in conjunction with the local water current, dramatically enlarges wave heights.
Due to the height of the waves, numerous surfing records have been set at Nazaré. In November 2011, surfer Garrett McNamara, surfed a then record-breaking giant wave: 78 ft from trough to crest. On November 8, 2017, Brazilian surfer Rodrigo Koxa broke the previous record by surfing a big wave of 80 ft; for this feat he won the Quiksilver XXL Biggest Wave prize and entered the Guinness World Record for the biggest wave ever surfed.
