Praia do Norte Nazaré

After Garrett MacNamara was invited in 2011 to “ride the world’s biggest wave,” Nazaré—the biggest, baddest, and most monstrous wedge in the world—took center stage in the big wave community. Since then, Nazaré has established itself as a household name, a major coastal tourist destination in Portugal, a (former) stop on the Big Wave World Tour, and the birthplace of big wave tow surfing. Sebastian Steudtner out of Germany cracked the record once more in 2020. The enormous deep-sea canyon that produced the XXL Nazare surf is massive (the Nazare Canyon). It helps funnel and shape some of the planet’s largest surges by cutting through the seafloor to a depth of roughly five kilometers in certain areas. When the offshore canyon isn’t turning enormous swells into 80+-foot peaks, the inside sand bar of Nazaré delivers hefty, hollow tubes in sizes that experienced barrel-riding surfers may enjoy.