How It Feels to Surf the World’s Biggest Wave
When you first see the leviathan arch of the world’s biggest wave tower over the cliffs of Nazaré, Portugal, its crown of angry froth exploding onto itself, you might wonder if it isn’t the tongue of God come to swallow the Earth.
Surging vertically to a height of up to 100 feet just behind an ancient lighthouse, the wave has all the menace of a massive tsunami, but unlike a tsunami, it can be surfed. When conditions at Nazaré are right, in the months between October and March, modern-day Prometheans zipper down the black well of the wave’s face, chasing the violent edge of the crest’s shadow, hurtling desperately toward the light. For big wave surfers, it’s the ride of their lives.
“The amount of speed you get going down those waves is incredible,” says Maya Gabeira of Brazil. (About 45 miles per hour.) “The water is changing under your feet as you’re going
