Surf’s up (like, way up)
What was the craziest thing you did as a teenager? ‘Borrow’ your parent’s car for a joy ride? Dye your hair blue? Nick a candy bar from the corner store? How about battling the world’s gnarliest wave, did you ever try that? No, I didn’t think so.
The truth is, not many people of any age have taken a shot at surfing Nazaré, widely regarded as the wildest wave anywhere. Located on Portugal’s untamed Atlantic Coast, about an hour and a half north of Lisbon, the wave they call Nazaré (it’s name borrowed from the nearby town) is an absolute beast. A mega swell of water formed by an underground canyon more than 200 km long and 5 km deep, Nazaré has been known to reach heights of over 100 feet. Stop and think about that for a moment. One hundred feet.
So who of sound mind and body would be crazy enough to surf Nazaré? I know of just one person personally—a happy-go-lucky 17-year-old named Jake Smith. The eldest of four boys, Jake was born in Southern California and spent the first dozen years of his life there. By the age of four he was messing around on surf boards and, as you can see from the photo below, two things were immediately clear. One, he was a natural, totally at home standing on a piece of foam. And two, he loved it.
I met Jake and his family four years ago when they were living in Bali, Indonesia. By that time, Jake and his brothers (Luke, Sam, and Micah) were already surfing waves the size of delivery vans. If you’ve ever been demolished by a wave the size of a small sofa (something which I’ve experienced), you’ll appreciate how impressive it was to see a family-pack of young kids surfing with the big boys.
Flash forward to November of 2021 when I crossed paths with the Smiths again, this time in Portugal. They’d recently landed there after two years of skiing and surfing their way through the pandemic in Japan, Thailand, and Hawaii. I half-jokingly asked Jake if he’d ever want to surf Nazaré. “Totally,” he replied with a sincere and surprisingly un-crazy smile. A month later, I got a message from his mum saying that Jake had been invited to train in Nazaré by a pro surfer who’d spotted him at Supertubos (an awesomely-named wave half an hour south of Nazaré).
The thing about Nazaré is that you don’t just show up, paddle out, and give it a whirl. You need to be tapped. You need to be called up to the big leagues. This is a big, dangerous wave that demands an incredibly high-level of skill and some very specific gear.
For starters, you need a bigger board. Not a run-of-the-mill six-footer, but a super solid 10’ slab that can handle the punishment. Then you require a wetsuit, because that water is cold, especially in winter when the big swells roll in. On top of the wetsuit you need an impact vest (whose name kind of says it all). You also need an ‘airlift’, which has four CO2 cartridges that inflate a bladder to whisk the surfer to the surface when the frothy madness simply won’t let up. A helmet’s not a bad idea either.
And finally, to surf Nazaré when it’s really pumping you need a jet ski with an experienced driver to tow you into the wave. A powerful surfer can paddle out to catch 20-25’ waves, but anything bigger than that is too huge, too fast, and too impossible to catch without a tow.
There’s one more thing you need to brave Nazaré—a very specific sort of mindset. This is where I’m at a loss to understand, let alone explain, what it takes to do something this crazy. You have to really, truly not think it’s crazy at all. And after chatting with Jake about his experience surfing Nazaré that’s clearly the case. For him, playing with water monsters is the most natural thing in the world.
Waves are ephemeral, evolving creatures. There one minute. Gone the next. It’s virtually impossible to measure the height of a wave with any precision. Garrett McNamara, the legendary big wave surfer who discovered and pioneered the Nazaré wave only a decade ago (an insane story, well-told in the HBO series 100 Foot Wave) is said to have surfed a hundred foot wave. A few others may have as well.
I asked Jake about his biggest wave at Nazaré. He figures it was about 40-50’. Let’s put that into perspective. Catching a wave that massive is like snowboarding down a double black diamond run, in football gear, while being chased by a five-storey building filled with water. This is not child’s play. And yet, Jake is a kid (only 16 years old when he caught the wave below). A kind, gentle, fun, teenager (built more solidly than an early 80’s E-Class Mercedes). How crazy cool is that?
When I saw Jake again in Nazaré a couple of months ago we sat down and I peppered him with questions. Some of his replies:
How do you get to be a good surfer?
“You put in the time. Watch other people surf. It takes time, it takes time.”
What extra skills do you need to go from surfing regular waves to surfing big waves?
“You need to trust yourself. You’re never prepared for what Nazaré has. You can be kind of prepared, but never fully prepared. The main thing is just to be out there and see big waves going by. You’ve got a little fear, your heart is beating.”
When you get on big wave, what’s going through your mind?
“YEAAAAHHHH!”
What does it feel like to have a big wipe out?
“You’re doing like a hundred flips, you can’t tell which way is up. And you’re trying to stay relaxed. If you’re not relaxed you’re going through oxygen. And that’s when things go wrong. You’re trying to relax your limbs, maybe cover your head depending on where you are.”
How many times more powerful is Nazaré than the biggest waves you surfed in Bali?
“10-20 times more powerful. It’s so heavy.”
Your dream was to surf Nazaré, now what?
“I want to surf bigger. I want to get a jet ski, a team, and a couple of big boards. Spend the whole season learning and understanding it.”
What’s your ultimate goal with surfing?
“Enjoying it. I’m doing it for the love of it. If that takes me somewhere, great. But if I don’t get sponsored I’ll just keep enjoying it, I’m not going to call it quits, whatever.”
I have a hunch the world is going to see more and more of Jake Smith. In the meantime, check out his Instagram which has a slew of awesome (and terrifying) photos and videos.