Arriving at Nazaré (pronounced Naz-a-ray) it is hard to prepare yourself for the sight of the waves, the size and the sound. Looking at the empty lineup the only indicator of the size is the time it takes for the lip of the wave to fall. All in what appears to be slow motion, but it is not.

With  Glyn Ovens  Photo Guilherme Soares

The previous week’s wind and weather will dictate the water temperature and colour, sometimes it’s blue and cold, other times dark, and oddly a little warmer. There are two Nazaré essentials: a floatation vest, whether it is buoyancy, or inflation, is a must in anything over 3m high faces. When – not if – you get beaten you are going to need it. And a safety ski. My first encounter was on a 2-3m day. I got caught inside, jumped off, and proceeded to get dragged to the beach by one wave, in one go, no questions, no re-surfacing, I just popped up in waist deep water. Ok, so this is how it is… Note to self, floatation.

Fast forward to this day (above), the wave when it apexes has the most power, and being right in the firing line of that is always going be ‘interesting’. Wiping out in the beginning is super scary, but as it happens more often you become accustomed to the unpleasantness, but I wouldn’t say comfortable.

My last beating went a little like this. Take off – OK yep, got this, wow lots of wind up the face. Steady yourself to keep the board from flying, OK here comes a bump, get low, bounce, another bump, over it, ah, too straight, try and out run it, getting low….Wave explodes, try and hang on. Fail. Wipeout. BOOM! I try and cling onto my paddle but the first thing I do is get a good hold on to my buoyancy to make sure it doesn’t get ripped off. The thrashing is crazily violent and I keep myself in a ball to try and stop my limbs getting ragged around too much.  This is added to the fact that my equipment has a habit of attacking me underwater, always a joy.

I give up worrying about which way is up, you just hang tight and wait for your buoyancy to do the work. This can take a while, the water is so aerated, even the skis struggle, so hold downs are substantial. It’s all about staying as calm as possible, there’s no point in worrying about it; it is out of your control anyway. Meanwhile you’re hoping you get blasted as far away from the impact zone as possible, so you don’t come up right in front of another bomb. When you do come up, you are either on the beach, or hoping your safety ski has managed to work out where you are and can get to you before the next wave hits you. Sometimes they can’t get you, and you will have to do it all over again. You have to pay to play out there…

There are different wave types out there, massive rolling waves, and cavernous barrelling wedges, plus to keep in interesting a combination of the two. Each will give you a different type of beating, or the full cocktail.
First peak, which is nearest the Farol (the iconic lighthouse lookout point in many photos) can smash you into the rocks if you are not careful, especially if you go right, but on the second and third peaks further north you can just get smashed up the beach. SUP

“ It’s all about staying as calm as possible, there’s no point in worrying about it; it is out of your control anyway ”