The picturesque seaside town of Nazaré, nestled along Portugal’s west coast, is a beloved summer retreat. Tourists flock to its expansive sandy shores to unwind, swim, and surf. However, as winter sets in, the town transforms into a high-stakes playground for only the most daring adventurers. During this season, Nazaré’s beaches become perilous, as towering waves—some reaching astonishing heights of up to 100 feet—crash along its rugged coastline.
These awe-inspiring waves have made Nazaré a mecca for big-wave surfers worldwide. However, until just over a decade ago, this hidden gem remained relatively unknown outside of Europe. That changed dramatically in November 2011 when Hawaiian surfer Garrett McNamara rode a record-breaking 78-foot wave from trough to crest. In January 2013, McNamara returned to Nazaré and shattered his own record by successfully conquering a monstrous wave estimated to be 100 feet tall. Later that same year, in October, Brazilian surfing legend Carlos Burle rode an even more colossal wave, cementing Nazaré’s reputation as one of the most legendary big-wave destinations in the world.
The Science Behind Nazaré’s Towering Waves
What makes Nazaré a unique phenomenon, consistently producing waves of such immense scale? The answer lies beneath the ocean’s surface in the rare underwater topography of Nazaré Canyon. Stretching 125 miles from the vast depths of the Atlantic Ocean to within half a mile of the shore, Nazaré Canyon is the largest submarine ravine in Europe. At its deepest point, it plunges over three miles beneath the surface, before rising sharply toward a dramatic headwall that reaches between 100 and 150 feet just off the coast of Praia do Norte beach—where some of the most massive waves on Earth are born.
Winter storms brewing in the North Atlantic generate powerful ocean swells. As these swells approach Nazaré, the canyon acts as a natural amplifier, concentrating their energy much like a magnifying glass intensifies sunlight. This phenomenon allows the waves to surge suddenly in height. As the swells approach the shoreline, the abrupt rise of the seabed further intensifies them, causing them to break into breathtakingly enormous waves.
Many of the world’s most famous big-wave surfing destinations—such as Teahupo’o in Tahiti, the Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii, and Mavericks in Northern California—owe their formidable surf to similar undersea geological formations. Yet, Nazaré’s unique combination of depth, shape, and proximity to the shore makes it an unparalleled force in the surfing world.
