As a kid I always had a fascination
with storms, during a lightning storm I would go outside and just sit
and watch memorized by it all. At work lightning struck a high voltage power line pylon 30 seconds after I was on it, my ears were ringing from the instant crack as the lightning hit, while everyone else was freaking out I was thinking that was the most awesome thing I have seen and heard. When ever the ocean would get crazy at
our holiday spot at Raumati beach I used to go down to the seawall
and watch the swells smashing into it, one year the surf came over
that wall and I thought it was the best holiday ever. When I first
saw the movie “The perfect storm” in 2000 about a boat being
caught in a storm so violent that a 101ft wave was recorded on a buoy
off the coast of Nova Scotia I knew that I wanted to see that wave
with my own eyes.
For years it was in the back of my
mind until one day I witnessed not a particularly huge swell hit
Aileens but a swell that created 70ft waves, I sat their for 6hrs in the
cold wind hoping someone would turn up and surf it, but no one did
and probably best they didn't! It reminded my how much I wanted to
see that 100 footer, so when I saw the charts for the “Hercules”
swell in January I looked at the places that might be surf-able and
could get up to 100ft going on past conditions been surfed. Looking
at Nazaré, in November 2011 Garrett McNamara had surfed a 78ft world
record wave from a 6.5m@14sec swell,
in January 2013 Andrew Cotton towed Garrett into maybe an even bigger
wave from a 5.8m@16sec swell. So this
was telling me the Hercules swell should be well over 100ft with the
swell smashing the Portuguese coast at a whopping 9.8m@21sec.
With me mind made up and with high hopes I decided to leave
Mullaghmore behind for this one and head to Nazaré to chase my
dream.
I'm comfortable in exploring new
places by myself but sitting on the wrong side of the car driving on
the wrong side of the road by myself was a bit daunting. Concentrating so hard
on where I should be on the road in the dark I drove past toll ticket
booths where apparently as I found out 50km's down the road I
should've got a toll ticket. The lady at the toll booth said you have
to have a ticket and I said no I haven't, then she said well that'll
be €55!! Fuck me is this road made outta gold, didn't make that
mistake again. Getting up in the morning and looking out from the
balcony I could see the famous fort on top of that hill where all
those photos are taken from saturating the net. Heading out for a
look around the town you notice quickly there's pride in this town
from how clean it is, sharp white edged walls and terracotta roofs,
the footpaths hand paved with heart from small broken tiles. Women on
the beach sorting and drying out fish caught by the men earlier in
the morning. There's no McD's, KFC or other fast food chains here,
all local little pastry and coffee cafés that give money directly
back into their families, the way it should be. The fish here is
amazing and caught fresh daily, on the menu where ever you dine and
the dishes are to die for. So off I went, up to the hill to see the
100ft wave...
Sitting up on the hill watching the
swell build going on what I've seen in the past in Ireland it just
didn't look even close to big, it didn't feel huge. So I wandered
down the steps on the front of the fort to watch it front on which is
pretty darn spectacular to be that close to the surf smashing into
the rocks directly below you. The mad thing is people from all walks
of life are here to watch this spectacle, women with high street
super high heels and €1,000 bags, guys in suits, hippies, families
and shit load of photogs. It was so good to see this wave that my
mate Cotty and his tow partner Garrett have put on the worlds radar has ignited the
imagination in them. As dusk was approaching a flow of disappointment
was passing through me, the waves were breaking a long way out but
even with a set a lot bigger than anything else that come through
just on dusk I can't say that I saw a 100ft wave. Cotty said to me
beforehand that with the slight onshore wind it could take 20ft off
the top of the wave, maybe in the morning with light offshores it
might look different.
During the night the boom of the
waves breaking were rattling the windows with ferocity. Hearing that
during the night my hopes were high as I was sitting beside the fort
waiting for the sun to rise. As the dawn broke my heart started to
sink and I knew from that moment my dream of the 100ft wave wasn't
going to happen. Don't get me wrong, it was big and maybe the biggest
waves I've ever seen but it wasn't what I was hoping for. I have a
huge amount of respect for Cotty, Garrett and the other crews taking
on this wave, it's scary as hell out there. I'm not sure exactly
what part they surf but there's rocks that are getting swamped by 20ft of white water then smashing the shit out of the cliffs, a place
you don't want to be. Once a wave breaks out the back it's virtually
white water all the way to the beach, how Maya survived is a miracle
on it's own, and I'm sure she has a big pair for taking Nazaré on,
respect. Even though my dream didn't come true this time I was stoked
I'd made the call to come here and just watch the random madness of
these waves breaking and experience the local culture and food.
One thing that's always been on my
mind is how much do you take off the wave height from shooting so
high up on a hill, that was something I wanted to figure out for
myself. That angle definitely gives the photos a lot of deception of
how big it really is, during the few days of my stay I went down to
the beach on the south and the north side of the hill and took shots
from sea level and 15-20m above to compare the shots from the hill. I
kinda worked it out to be that you would may have to take between
25-30% off the height of the wave taken from on top of the hill, so
if it looked like 90ft it would actually be 65-70ft but remember this
is only what I have worked out and my own personal opinion,
without being out in the water you don't know how much the bottom of
the wave is below sea level. So personally the only place to figure
out the undeniable true height is to photograph Nazaré from
the water, this poses a huge problem with the shifting sand banks
eating skis and people. You'll need a ballsy ski driver that really
knows how to drive out of bad situations and keep calm as the
adrenaline runs wild, as I said that'll be one scary place to shoot
from.
 |
| 2 different angles within an hour of each photo, that rock is 15m high |
Nazaré is a spectacular place,
beautiful and full of surprises. The wave is a freak of nature and
I'm sure I never saw it anywhere near it's best, maybe this swell was
too big to hit the right banks that warp the wave to great heights.
Will I go back, yes, I love the place and next time I'm in Ireland I
will be taking another trip down if it looks to be breaking and my
dream now for Nazaré is to photograph Cotty and Garrett taking it on,
maybe even photograph it from the water...
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