This past year during the last week of October, I met Garrett McNamara, the famous big wave surfer and star of the acclaimed HBO series, “The 100 Foot Wave,” in Nazare, Portugal, for an up-close-and-personal look at the biggest waves in the world.
To get the full experience, McNamara took me out on his tow-in jet ski to where the waves were breaking in excess of 60 feet. In an earlier story, I recounted my entire Nazare visit (links at end). But below is a detailed account of the most dramatic part of our experience via an after-the-fact interview with McNamara. Not only did we ride atop a 60-plus-foot wave that day, but dangerously flipped our jet ski, as well.
Jim Clash: I’ve been keeping an eye on the surf forecasts for Nazare. Looks like we got lucky when we went out on October 28.
Garrett McNamara: Yeah. That was one of the biggest days so far this season at Nazare.
Clash: As I had written in my previous stories, once we were out on the jet ski, you took me over to various breaking waves in excess of 40 feet. But on a really huge one, we actually rode on top, correct?
McNamara: Yes, we rode horizontally across the top of a 60- to 70-foot wave and watched it break under us. You could see how far down the face was, with the [Praia do Norte] lighthouse in the background. It gives a great perspective of what we, as surfers, deal with. From where you were, you could totally understand what it would look like to actually drop into a wave [without doing so].
Clash: If I had tossed a quarter from my hand, would it have fallen straight into the ocean six or seven stories below?
McNamara: It would have gone straight down the wave face. You could have skipped it.
Clash: My memory up to that point is pretty vivid – unbelievable, unforgettable sights. After that, though, I’m a bit foggy as things unfolded. What happened next?
McNamara: We stopped behind the big wave we had just been on after it passed by, then I turned the ski a bit to the left. You leaned to the left, too, and we flipped over. If you’re moving on a ski, you won’t flip, but if you’re stopped and you both lean the same way, then you will.
I started working to flip the ski back. You swam over and helped, and together we managed to flip it back. I immediately jumped on and started it. Usually, they do start up, but if it had rolled the wrong way and water had gone into the intake, it probably wouldn’t have. Cotty [Andrew Cotton] on his ski came full speed toward us as he saw what was happening. If he had had enough time, he would have grabbed us.
Clash: Could we both have grabbed onto the back of Cotty’s ski, or just one of us? He already had Carlos Toro, the photographer, on the back.
McNamara: Again, given enough time, he could have pulled us both to safety. But I would have made sure that you were on first. If there wasn’t time, I would have just pushed you all away.
Clash: I guess we were lucky, in many respects.
McNamara: I chose to ride over the last wave [in the set] on purpose so that we would be safer. [Waves tend to come in sets of three or four.] But you still never know – another wave could have popped up. Nazare is unpredictable [because of its canyon and shape of the bottom]. If another wave had come, you would probably have gone unconscious, and died. We would have brought you back, resuscitated you, though.
Clash: You’ve told me in the past that you’ve ridden so many big waves that you don’t get much of an adrenaline rush out there anymore?
McNamara: True. But when we flipped that ski, I got a rush because I was in charge of your life. With surfers, I get more of a rush, too, when I tow them into a wave. I’m responsible for that person, similar to you and me on the jet ski. All of a sudden, you were in the water with the potential of another wave coming, so I felt a deep sense of responsibility. It wasn’t a full dopamine release, but it was definitely a partial [laughs].
(Editor’s Note: For more, find Garrett McNamara’s Instagram at MCNAMARA_S. Also get his book, “Hound of the Sea,” available at Amazon.