Surf legend Garrett McNamara
already holds the Guinness world record for 78ft wave he caught in the same
rough seas off the coast of Nazare, Portugal, in 2011.
The Hawaiian surfer Garrett
McNamara is said to have broken his own world record for the largest wave
surfed when he caught a wave reported to be around 100ft off the coast of, Nazare
Portugal.
If the claims are verified, it
will mean that McNamara, who was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts but whose
family moved to Hawaii's North Shore when he was aged 11, has beaten his
previous record, which was also set at Nazare.
When McNamara set that record in
2011, he was accompanied by fellow big-wave surfers Andrew Cotton and Alastair
Mennie and at the time Mennie said that the conditions were "perfect"
for McNamara whom he described as "inspiring".
"Everything was perfect, the
weather, the waves," Mennie said. "Cotty and I surfed two big waves
of about 60ft and then, when Garrett was ready came a canyon wave of over 90ft.
The jet ski was the best place to see him riding the biggest wave I've ever
seen. It was amazing. Most people would be scared but Garrett was controlling
everything in the critical part of the wave. It was an inspiring ride by an
inspiring surfer."
Speaking to the Observer in 2011
after his record-setting 90ft ride, McNamara explained: "We'd been invited
by the government of Portugal to Nazaré to investigate it for a big wave
competition. There is an underwater canyon 1,000ft deep that runs from the
ocean right up to the cliffs. It's like a funnel. At its ocean end it's three
miles wide but narrows as it gets closer to the shore and when there is a big
swell it acts like an amplifier.
"The harbour where the
jetskis are kept is about five minutes' ride away. I can see it from my hotel
window. You go out and it can be almost flat as you leave and ride along the
coast. You start seeing the waves after about half a mile when you pass some
rocks and turn a point. Then you are in the break. It's unique. The waves break
into cliffs 300ft in height. You can't contemplate coming off because it would
kill you."
Garrett McNamara wasn't planning
to surf on 1 November. "I just didn't really feel it," he says. He
agreed, however, that he would tow his British friend and fellow big wave
surfer, Andrew Cotton, on his jetski.
What happened during that session
has already entered surfing lore. Persuaded to take a wave, McNamara, 44, found
himself on a freak mountain of water 90ft (30m) high, surfing one of the
biggest waves ever ridden, probably the largest in Europe and the biggest
recorded on film.
It is all the more extraordinary
because of the hazardous nature of the break, an hour north of Lisbon, where
some of the world's biggest waves collapse almost on the shoreline.
Known as "Gmac",
McNamara, who was born far from the ocean in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is one
of the world's best-known big wave riders, taking up surfing after his family
moved to Hawaii's North Shore. He has surfed tsunami waves caused by calving
icebergs and ridden some of the world's biggest monsters.
"We'd been invited by the
government of Portugal to Nazaré to investigate it for a big wave
competition," he recalls. "There is an underwater canyon 1,000ft deep
that runs from the ocean right up to the cliffs. It's like a funnel. At its
ocean end it's three miles wide but narrows as it gets closer to the shore and
when there is a big swell it acts like an amplifier."
Unlike many of the other surf
breaks that hold huge waves, which are offshore, those riding at Nazaré are so
close to the overlooking cliffs, says McNamara, that he can shout to his
watching friends.
"The harbour where the jetskis
are kept is about five minutes' ride away. I can see it from my hotel window.
You go out and it can be almost flat as you leave and ride along the coast. You
start seeing the waves after about half a mile when you pass some rocks and
turn a point. Then you are in the break. It's unique. The waves break into
cliffs 300ft in height. You can't contemplate coming off because it would kill
you."
Big wave surfing requires special
equipment and a different approach to riding ordinary waves. On 1 November McNamara
was equipped with a buoyancy aid and knee braces to protect his joints from the
battering a surfer's legs suffer bouncing down the huge wave faces.
"It looks smooth but it's
not. It's like bouncing down moguls [on a ski slope]. You hit every ripple in
the water." It is for precisely this reason that in the huge sets, the
second wave is often preferable. "The first wave grooms the sea bottom and
can make the second smoother," McNamara explains.
On 1 November McNamara was not
equipped with an emergency air supply to improve his chances of survival if he
were to be held down by the surging water after coming off his board. His 6ft
board is equipped with feet straps, like a snowboard, to prevent him being
thrown off, and loaded with 10lbs (5kg) of extra weight to increase momentum at
the beginning of the ride. Even catching big waves is different to ordinary
surfing. The speed of big waves makes it difficult to paddle fast enough ahead
of the wave to catch them, so jetskis are used to tow the surfer at speed on to
the breaking crest and to recover the surfer at the end of his ride – a
dangerous business in its own right.
"We went round and I just
wasn't feeling it that much," McNamara said. "When we got round to
the break it did seem big but I was just going to tow Andrew. But we still
weren't expecting much. I didn't feel so good. Then the other guys were saying
you've got to go. You've got to go and – boom! – I was on the rope and on a
giant wave.
"Even then I just didn't
realise how big it was. So I started and I kept going down and down and the
drop seemed like forever. And I thought – wow! I started making the bottom turn
and I felt the lip hit me. You can see it in the video. Usually I don't have
time to look around but you see me look round twice and then I get hit by the
white water on the shoulder and it feels like a ton of bricks. I've been hit
like that before and I'm thinking: I've got to make this. I've never been held
down by a wave that size and I've ridden big waves. I've seen waves rip a guy's
arms off so there is nothing holding them on but skin and I'm thinking this
could tear my head off.
"That's when I knew that it
was pretty damn big. Andrew picked me up. And I'm shouting: 'Put me in deeper.
Deeper!' And Andrew is looking at me like I'm a lunatic. Everyone else is
saying: 'It's a monster. We're going in.'
"It's only when I got in
that I saw the footage. I was in awe. I mean I felt it was a decent size. But
you can see it then pops up 10, 20, 30 feet higher. It just supersizes."
Despite being acclaimed as a world record-breaking wave, McNamara is modest.
"I know it was not 100ft so I'll leave the sponsors and others to say how
big it really was."
He is also not convinced he wants
to repeat the experience. "I'm not sure I want to ride that peak again,"
he admits.