Earlier this month, possibly the biggest swell of 2014 blew into Portugal’s epic surf spot, Nazare churning up mammoth waves from Punta Galea to Jaws. As Portugal prepared for what was sure to be one of the site’s biggest sessions, big wave surfers Garrett McNamara, Ross Clarke-Jones, Hugo Vau, and Sebastien Steudtner embarked on an adventure to push their very limits.
According to a report first published on The Inertia, Red Bull team leader McNamara “lost a jet ski in 20-feet of whitewater. Andrew Cotton got smashed beyond belief, and Ross Clarke-Jones proved that once you’ve got it, you can never lose it.” The video below documents the surfer’s exploits and illustrate the sheer magnitude of the waves that pounded these watermen to a pulp.
McNamara, of course, is no stranger to the location or putting himself within arm’s reach of shirking his mortal coil. The elder statesman of big wave surfing was first believed to have ridden a 100-foot-high wave near this same spot and McNamara famously rode waves caused by the calving of ice from Alaskan glaciers almost seven years ago. It’s an incredible show of fortitude and daring, and charging into waves like these is not for everyone. But as McNamara and his compatriots have shown, locations and waves like these wouldn’t be possible without the aid of personal watercraft.
