On 5 January 2023, Brazilian Marcio Freire, a 47-years old veteran of big wave surfing, fell off his board mid-wave during a practice run. When he was found, he was already dead. Attempts to resuscitate him on the beach failed. Marcio Freire died surfing the waves of Nazaré, the largest in the world.
Nazaré is a small once-upon-a-time fishing village on the Portuguese coast about an hour’s drive north of Lisbon. These days, Nazaré is it better known for spectacular beaches and especially big wave surfing. Nazaré’s special geology is what makes this place unique for surfers. When conditions are right, huge quantities of water are funnelled up the Nazaré Canyon, which is 5 kilometres deep at its origin some 170 kilometres offshore in the Atlantic Ocean. The water travels at increasing speed along the length of the canyon until it is jettisoned onto a shallow ledge just beneath a red lighthouse on a small rocky outcrop north of Nazaré village.
Big wave specialists only began to surf Nazaré's monster waves in 2010. Ten years later, on 29 October 2020, Sebastian Steudtner, a German, broke the big wave world record when he tackled a breaker measuring 26.2 meters from crest to trough. The picture below illustrates the relative heights of Steudtner and his wave.
Steudtner’s surfboard, a tiny yellow thing, is on display in a little museum in the building underneath the red lighthouse, alongside the boards of other great big wave surfers.
Remarkably, no one has died surfing the enormous waves of Nazaré until this year. Until Marcio Freire. On most days, Nazaré doesn't even show any signs of the awesome wave power beneath the surface. For the wave magic to occur, a North Atlantic winter storm must first push huge quantities of water in an easterly/north easterly direction through the Nazaré Canyon. The canyon then first divides the flow and then re-combines it, so that it picks up speed, before finally thrusting it upwards with enormous force at Nazaré. When the winds also happen to be light and local currents are at their most favourable, the waves of Nazaré can reach heights in excess of 30 meters. Other than Tsunamis, no other force on earth produces waves of this size.
It is worth visiting Nazaré even when the surf is down. The Restaurante Mar a Vista on the path down to the lighthouse serves a delicious thick seafood broth and fresh octopus in olive oil. Besides, the views both north and south of the red lighthouse are spectacular.
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