domingo, 26 de fevereiro de 2012

Biggest wave ever surfed is portuguese


Well this is an old new (from 8th novembre 2011), but I've been delaying to post it because I wanted to see the documentary first but I already didn't. Anyway I've been a bit busy specially reading stuffs about economy and politics and so I forgot to write this here, but it'a about time.
Months ago I bought a newspaper talking about the Euro Crisis that it was suspected that Germany and France wanted to throw away poor countries (as Poortugal and Greece out of Euro and make a stronger Euro), like a new Berlin Wall. Moving on, I only knew about this thing of the big wave from that newspaper, as I don't use to see news on TV, and nobody talked about this with me (like never) I really didn't pay that much attention. Anyway there wasn't that fuss about this, it was a 2minute new on TV...and I think we should pay more attention to amazing news like this.
This one was a big, big wave! The biggest ever surfed with about 30 metres...the height of a 30 floor flat!!! Can you imagine that?

Who surfed that wave was the north-american surfer Garret McNamara, 44 years old, famous for surfing giant waves (Surfer-rides-biggest-wave-McNamara).
To be honest, I was unaware of the surfing power of the portuguese coast but in fact, Portugal has the only surfing reserve in Europe and the few surfing reserves in the World: there's only Santa Cruz and Malibu, in California USA.
The surf natural reserves were elected by organization Save the Waves that have the purpose of creating world wide surf reserves preserving the environment. There were nominated 126 wave zones from 34 different countries!
Garret McNamara surfed the giant wave in Praia do Norte, Nazaré, Portugal by chance when he was just surfing along being filmed for his documentary and the giant wave appeared suddenly...like a gift from mother-Earth, fortunatelly he could surf safe the dangerous wave and he was being filmed (if he wouldn't nobody would believe in such a thing).
I not even was aware that Portugal had giant waves, specially with astonishing 30 metres!!! But there's the scientific explanation: the beach Praia do Norte is under an effect known as "Nazaré Cannon",  that makes possible the generation of waves this big. It's a rare geomorphological accident, the biggest of Europe and one of the biggest of the World, that consists in a tectonic continental fault with about 170 km of length and 5km depth that channels ripple of the Atlantic Ocean to this beach.
This is what Garret said before surfing the wave: "It was amazing!Probably the biggest wave I ever surfed. Very powerful. None of the previous waves I surfed were this big and strong!"
Confronted with the possibility of disappear forever in that moment, Garret, married, with 3 sons, assumes consciously the risk that he's under: "if I had fall into that wave, probably I would have died. the wave was so powerful that could have killed me easily", he expalined. However, this time, he didn't had fear."Everything fell into place. I felt very well", he described.
And what does Garret think during that seconds on the top of that huge mass of water? " I always think positive, or that I'm gonna be ok and I'm gonna make it!".
Garret said: "after surfing that wave I didn't feel full of adrenaline. I was calm and relaxed, it was a zen experience very good. Everything was perfect!". To describe an experience near to suicide with esoteric language it's really needed to be in a very high level of communionwith nature...and that's the essence of surfing!
Portugal is really a small place of Heaven by seaside, you should come here to visit and do surfing...we have the plus of having no sharks in the area :)


"I feel so blessed and honoured to have been invited to explore this canyon and its special town. The waves here [Nazaré, Portugal] are such a mystery", says Garrett (in surfertoday).

Portugal, itself, is a mystery :)







2 comentários:

  1. you bet it Adam! I wasn't aware of the portuguese coastline wave potential so I'll just get my car license and start surfing :D

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