VIDEO: Monster River Wave Surfing in Portugal

Dashel Pierson
·2 min read
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The biggest waves in the world are in Portugal.

Nazaré, a sleepy fishing village north of Lisbon, suddenly and steadily has emerged as the epicenter for big-wave surfing in recent years, producing some of the world’s largest known surfable waves, and is currently home to the Guinness World Record.

And it turns out, Portugal is holding in terms of river waves, too. Check out this behemoth rivermouth session below; biggest river wave in the world?

The river session comes from Ericeira, Portugal, a popular surf town about an hour and some change south of Nazaré. When the thing really gets cranking, it’s absolutely massive. Look at the humans standing on the sidelines for scale – the wave’s at least twice their size. And at one point, does it almost, maybe, sorta barrel?

Not many – if any – river waves do that.

With the muddy brown water, and the size of the thing, it looks somewhat comparable to the famed Waimea Bay River wave on Oahu’s North Shore.

As you may recall, that’s where North Shore charger Jamie O’Brien nearly drowned during a hectic session following some torrential rain.

JOB explained:

“I couldn’t control my board, and I honestly just fell right back. It’s like a 10 or 12 foot wave, and it sucked me back. Then there was another wave, and it was just as big, and I’m like, ‘oh my god. I’m gonna die. My leash is gonna break. I’m in a very bad spot.

“That wave just tumbles me, and tumbles me, and tumbles me…then, boom. It lets me out where the river meets the ocean. And the [ocean] waves were 15 feet. Huge Waimea. Probably one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done in my life.”

When you play with fire…

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