Surfing the 100 Foot Wave Garrett McNamara

So it's twenty eleven in Portugal, in a small fishing village off the Atlantic coast, where colossal waves explode from an ancient submarine canyon, drawing the eye of a pioneer and surfing Garrett mcnara to challenge the impossible. He does so, and what he does sets a record seventy eight feet, the largest wave ever ridden, but is not enough for him. He continues as he wants to go for one hundred, which he does in two thousand and thirteen with an unofficial run of one hundred feet. He becomes the greatest big wave surfer of all time. And join us to see exactly how this little kid went from a cult to become the greatest big wave surfer ever. Today on daily Welcome to Day the Sports His I'm Ethan Reees your guide because I once took a surf class and was able to stand up, so I know what I'm talking about. So Garrett was born in nineteen sixty seven in Massachusetts, where all great surfers are born. No, he was born there, but moved around a lot and would end up in Central America with his mother, where it was a sad point in his life. Essentially this was a cult. His mother was subjected to domestic violence and him and his brother were left with little food and hungry for the most days. But eventually they were able to get out of that situation and moved to Oahu, Hawaii in nineteen seventy eight, and this move would change his life forever. Because we all know Hawaii, especially the north shore, is a great place for surfing, so of course Garrett was able to try surfing and fell in love at the age of eleven. He was a late starter, but took to it fast. He would join the pro circuit by the time he was seventeen and actually became a pioneer in tow indsurfing. Now toe insurfing is when a jet ski or a boat usually a jetsy, pulls you into the wave. Normally, what we see with waves is you paddle out yourself and you get up on your own to ride the wave. But when you're towed into the wave, you're able to get bigger waves because they're harder to catch manually. And he loved this, and he winded up winning the two thousand and two Jaws Tow World Cup and really loved this toWin style. So after winning this, he really starts to look for the biggest wave possible, and in twenty ten he gets a call from someone in Portugal, in the little town of Nazier, where they have some of the biggest waves based off their geometry with an underwater canyon that really allows waves to grow weirdly big, and fishermen have whole tales of losing sea months of waves over seventy feet tall. So he finally makes it out there and he gets towed by jet ski and he ends up this tiny speck on this giant wave that is seventy eight feet tall. Seventy eight feet tall, that is so big, and he makes it look effortlessly as he rides down this wave as crowds in a lighthouse nearby are watching and cheering, and Garrett says, it's the ride of his life, something that changed everything. This was a world record, the tallest wave ever ridden. But he's not done. He's at seventy eight and he's like one hundred sounds like a good number. I wish I could get to that number. So he continues to come back to this place every now and then he comes back in January twenty thirteen and gets towed into a wave that he thinks is gonna be big but nothing special, and it goes crazy as a wave builds height and more height and more height, and it gets smaller and smaller against the backdrop of this wave as it grows to an estimated one hundred feet tall, But because of how the videos shot, they're not able to estimate the exact height totally a guess, so he is not given the world record for this height. But when you watch the video, it is a amazing how big it is, and one wrong turn could havemit disaster for him. With how big this was. Yearrett would go on to have eight Guinness Booker World records, and though his tallest wave of all time record would be broken, since this one hundred foot wave could not be verified and he's still known as a big wave surfing god, they ended up making an HBO series about his one hundred foot wave, and after he had this one hundred foot wave, he gained great notoriety. The HBO special really helped the video went viral and he was able to keep traveling and keep looking for massive waves. Then, in January twenty sixteen, at Mavericks in California, mcne Garrett suffered a horrific wipeout. This is the downside of surfing these big waves. When you fall, it's going to hurt a lot more. And he fell on a sixty foot wave, shattering his shoulder in his upper arm, which required major surgery, long rehabs, and he describes he was thrown like a skipping stone, pounded by the water, repeatedly rescued by jet skis who were able just to pull him from the rock, and sadly they were actually filming this. He can go back and see probably the worst moment of his life. So after this, he took a little bit of a step back, focus on a foundation he co founded with his family for youth in places like Nasr, Portugal, where he served that big wave of Wahoo, where he grew up, giving back to children with special needs, letting them enjoy being able to surf and enjoy the water just like he did. And he's essentially retired from big waves surfing. He said in the mid twenty twenties that I took a toll on his body, taking a toll in his life. And he still occasionally tackles a big swell and he stays deeply connected to the Nacier community as his way record has been broken multiple times and the current record is from February twenty twenty four when Sebastian Studiner almost qualified for one hundred when he wrote a ninety three foot wave, breaking the previous record of eighty at the same location as Garrett Nasir Portugal. My question for you is would you even go to Nasier, Portugal knowing they have these waves, because frankly, that just scares me like crazy. What do you think? The question is would you be okay having a record that's not recognized knowing you beat the world record or do you want the recognition? It's a tough one. I want to thank you for listening to Today's Daily Sports History. If you like this, please share it with a friend, share it on your social media. There's a little share button probably where you're listening to, because that is our best way to continue to grow. And the more that we're able to grow this, the more episodes I can do and the more deep dives I can do bringing them to you as much as I can, and we'll see you on the next one.