When Dino Casimiro heard stories of nature monsters swallowing fishermen in Nazaré (Portugal), Garrett McNamara swore he would never surf big waves again after being thrashed by one at 15 years old in Sunset Beach (Hawaii). "Surfing can be very humiliating when a monster hits you and scares you," the American tells EL MUNDO at a Thule event, his sponsor, in Nazaré. Years later, Casimiro, the same age as McNamara when he had that scare, began visiting the lighthouse in the small Portuguese fishing town to catch a glimpse of the sea that represents "a love-hate relationship" for its inhabitants. "It was the livelihood of the whole town, but many died," he recalls to this newspaper.
One day, in his adolescence, the Portuguese returned home soaked after spending hours at the San Miguel Fort, the building where the Nazaré lighthouse is located, while the ocean showed all its strength. Upon returning home and saying where he had been, his family told him that "Praia do Norte was the devil," but he only thought about how to share that knowledge with the rest of the world. "I can't explain it, but I always had a passion for big waves."
Time passed, and while Casimiro continued with that message in his mind, McNamara had not only overcome his fear of big waves but had turned them into his profession and obsession. "I was barely 16 when my friend Gustavo Labarthe grabbed me by the neck and made me go back to Sunset, he explained how it was done, and after that, I fell in love with that kind of waves," the athlete points out.
However, riding the waves, for Garrett, has always been much more than a profession. "When we arrived in Hawaii, my mother had no money. We lived in a small apartment, without furniture. But I got a board and went surfing with a friend. When we did it was like, 'Oh my God, nothing matters.' Even if you don't have food in the fridge, money, toys... we were really enjoying life and the ocean," he reveals. Surfing was his passion, but giant waves were his obsession.
Thus, after starting his career participating in world circuit competitions, McNamara began to steer his life towards those monsters that scare most surfers. Jaws, Mavericks, Waimea... all the usual spots where the ocean showed its strength were Garrett's daily life. "Everything was bigger, bigger... until there was nothing bigger, until we couldn't find anything big enough," recalls the athlete.
Then, in the early 21st century, Casimiro and several partners began organizing bodyboard competitions at Praia do Norte because "surfboards were breaking against the bottom." Until one day, after climbing the lighthouse, he took a photo of something moving on the horizon. When he saw the image at home, he discovered that it was a perfect wave, but it would require jet skis to surf it. "I looked for surfers who did tow-in (a towing technique) at that time, and the only one with a contact website was Garrett," explains the Portuguese. So, in 2005, he sent him an email to ask if that wave was surfable.
"I was interested, it looked like Jaws without people in the water, but I was worried about what was in front of it," McNamara replied. And the discovery stayed in his inbox for over half a decade until his wife, Nicole, retrieved it after receiving another message. "We invited him to come in 2011, and Nazaré changed forever," responds Casimiro, now a technician in the Sports Area of the town council.
"When I arrived, I saw the biggest waves I had ever seen in my life, it was the Holy Grail," begins McNamara, who describes this spot as "Jaws, Waimea, and Puerto Escondido on steroids." "I felt at home and said, 'I don't have to move anymore, just try to tame the best swell possible,'" points out an athlete who, precisely, presented a Thule surfboard travel bag in this place where he resides half of the year. He achieved it that same month. It has been 14 years since he broke the Guinness record by catching a 78-foot (24-meter) wave in that magical 5,000-meter-deep canyon that forms those dream or nightmare monsters.
The small town of Nazaré has become a mecca for surfers obsessed with big waves, both in the water "where it has become massive and dangerous" and on land where rents in this town have risen by almost 10% annually. "If it's not regulated, there will end up being 100 jet skis at the peak in the next 10 years, it will be like Waterworld," laughs McNamara.
For now, the main business of big waves in Nazaré is owned by the company of Lino Bugalho, another pioneer of the place. Through it, you can rent jet skis for an approximate price of 500 euros per hour and spotters (surface watchers) for about 300. The complete service for the reckless who want to follow in the footsteps of Garrett McNamara, an athlete who has certain cerebrovascular risks after suffering over 100 head contusions, is a little over 1,000 euros per hour. "When you fall, it's like hitting cement, and then you enter the washing machine spin cycle with Tyson punching you," explains the American what he calls the "submarine journey."
McNamara uses special and customized helmets, a 5-millimeter brightly colored wetsuit, airbags for buoyancy, and short boards, 6.0, but with great weight and rounded fins for stability. "When you're prepared, you've done everything, you just have to surrender and enjoy," explains the athlete facing waves that require "life or death" decisions in tenths of a second.
Surprisingly, it's not Nazaré where this man has felt most vulnerable but in the Arctic Ocean where he has surfed waves coming from glacier calving. "If it falls vertically, fine, if it falls towards you, you're dead," explains a surfer who "is letting fear creep back into his mind," but who will never let that stop him from doing what he loves. "As long as it doesn't hurt, I'll keep surfing, even at 80 years old," he concludes.