Ross Clarke Jones's 5 Things You Didn't Know About Nazare
Ross Clarke-Jones descends the mountain last week, Photo by Hugo Silva / RedBull Content Pool
By Sally Mac
Home to some of the biggest, surfable waves in the world, Nazare is nestled on the mid-coast of Portugal with a population less than 20,000. It's 16 degrees Celcius there today, in the middle of winter, but it's prime wave season and a handful of the best big wave surfers have been hanging out in the Portuguese town to take advantage of the epic conditions as the very first World Surf League, Big Wave Tour holds it's firs Nazare Challenge.
It's a wave that builds from deep Atlantic Ocean storms. It rolls in and gains momentum ready to erupt with an intense fury, over the giant underwater canyons of Nazare as the fittest athletes descend their huge faces and locals, photographers and the world's media watch from the point. Garrett McNamara currently holds the record for the largest surfed wave at 78 feet, in January 2013 but no one wave can be discounted from anything but courageous in attempt.
We often see the successful rides at Nazare, there have of course been many failed attempts and near death situations. Just 2 days before Christmas 2015, first-timer Tom Lowe met with Jamie Mitchell's jet ski tow rope and ended up in a bit of a tangle and narrowly avoided injury.
Ross Clarke-Jones has taken on more than one man's fair share of ocean giants, but lives for that adrenalin fuelled drop and while conditions have been great in the last fortnight, he's been there suiting up and whipped into 30-50 foot volcano-esk walls of water with fellow RedBull surfers.
What are the 5 things we didn't know about Nazare until now, Ross?
- Nazare has more 30ft swells consistently than anywhere else in the world.
- Anyone that goes out in the big waves has to register with the Nazare Maritime Police first.
- You need more floatation wetsuits and inflatable suits than anywhere else.
- Nazare has some of the best freshest seafood in Europe.
- Anybody coming to Nazare needs to see Lino Bogahlo for any and all you need in Nazare to make it successful and fun!
All suited up in the inflatable wetsuits, Photo by Andrew Goldie / RedBull Content Pool
Backdooring Nazare, Photo by Hugo Silva / RedBull Content Pool
One of the smaller ones, Photo by Hugo Silva / RedBull Content Pool
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