so right now we are going to the top of
the lighthouse
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and then south
of the lighthouse we have the main city
of nazareth
and then more north we have tried north
the biggest faith in the world
now here's something that you just have
to see to believe
you've got to see this the most amazing
picture that we saw in the newsroom
today has got to be this
take a look at that surfer right there
garrett mcnamara is the fearless surfer
the wave is 78 feet tall that is taller
than seven story
buildings he is riding a mountain of
water off the coast of portugal portugal
that's in portugal right
that moment made desiree
a small town on the coast of portugal
home to the biggest wave
ever served
and over the past decade many surfers
have come here to make their own
attempts at a world record even at the
risk of their lives
how can i explain it naturally right now
it's the
formal one of big waves
but for a long time these waters weren't
at the heart of an extreme sport
they were driving an entirely different
culture for centuries
a culture that's changing dramatically
today
a story of
i say different tequila
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the world had no idea that we have the
biggest wave in the world here so yeah
it's never been like this
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this one is a is a nine six and it's not
the biggest one i have
so it's already like
double sized
my name is antonio mariano and i'm a
professional b-wave surfer what's up
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i'm from here i'm portuguese it's
getting bigger
i'm the youngest kid surfing nazareth
tomorrow with the energy really strong
it's going to be way more further out
and
some days ago i just won my first big
wave contest in spain
a couple of years ago tony went viral
for one particular wave estimated to be
101 feet tall
but he's still waiting for the guinness
world book of records to make it
official the adrenaline that we have
surfing those veils is something that
is impossible to explain like every big
wave scares me
a crash on the wave in ezra
you feel that your foot is like almost
behind your head
your
shoulder is on your knee
and then you say like long time
underwater
it doesn't seem like it's too long but
when you're getting kicked by 50 guys
believe it's it's too long
it's that extreme danger
and the rush that comes with it that led
to the discipline of big wave surfing
70 years ago
big wave surfing began in hawaii where
for a long time the sport had been
limited to waves less than 10 feet but
in the 1950s a group of daring surfers
successfully rode the notorious 25-foot
waves on oahu's north shore
that inspired many surfers to scour the
globe for bigger and bigger waves
and they found them
jaws
mavericks tiaupu fiji australia mexico
but they missed a spot
a place with the perfect conditions that
could generate waves larger than anyone
had ever imagined
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storms are critical to big waves around
the world when a storm moves over the
ocean its winds hit the surface
resulting in pulses of energy called
swells
which eventually become waves
some of the most powerful storms form
over the pacific and southern oceans
which send swells to places like hawaii
and australia
the north atlantic has similar storms
that send powerful swells barreling
towards nazareth between october and
april
and there's one on the way now
friday
we are going to have one swell that is
supposed to be the biggest hell of the
season
the swell is huge the wind is perfect
the direction it's like a good direction
the direction is really important
because if it's the right direction we
can have the effect of the canyon
the canyon that sits beneath the surface
just off the coast sets nazareth apart
from every other big wave spot
it begins here then runs for 230
kilometers
right up to nazareth's beach
it's half the length of the grand canyon
but nearly three times as deep at its
deepest point
is name is george bruce reference of
indian presidential campaign
so how does this canyon lead to giant
waves
can you give me
two minutes
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from that point here the canyon plunges
in depth remarkably quickly
over here the water is just 20 meters
deep but right over here the canyon is
200 meters deep the length of a 60-story
building
this difference has a major effect on
incoming swells
a swell approaches nazareth
it hits the canyon and gets split in two
the part in this shallow water slows
down but the part inside the canyon
continues to move fast and turns inward
towards the canyon wall
when it hits that wall it's suddenly
forced upwards resulting in a big wave
but when that coincides with the slow
swell the result is a humongous wave
the current
so why did it take so long for big wave
surfers to find nazareth it's portugal
portugal is a it's a small country and
we don't have a big culture on big world
surfing
but for centuries nazareth did have a
unique culture one that was also shaped
by these waves
not
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fishing sustained nazarenes for
generations
but it also required many to risk their
lives
tomorrow
is but despite the dangers fishing
continued to be nazareth's main industry
until the mid 20th century when it began
a slow decline
largely because the fish populations
were dwindling
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the drop in fish populations forced
nazarenes to turn to a different source
of income which came from here
pride to nazareth
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in the summers nazareth's waters were
calm and this beach attracted a lot of
tourists
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but these tourists only came in the
summer so nazareth needed a boost in the
winter
and they found it on the other side of
town pride de norte
because of the monstrous waves that
launch out of the canyon here in the
winter
but that changed in the early 2000s when
some locals who had been body surfing in
these waters recognized the thrill in
riding these waves and inspired them to
look for someone who was willing to try
and serve them
with
that man was garrett mcnamara they
invited him to nazareth and after a year
of training mcnamara caught the 78-foot
wave that set the world record in 2011.
i was seeing girls i was like
wow
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over the next few years big wave surfers
increasingly came to nazareth in 2017
brazilian surfer rodrigo kocha beat
mcnamara's record by serving this
80-foot wave
and in 2018 another brazilian maya
gabiera set the women's world record
here on this 68-foot wave
then set it again in 2020.
today five out of the six biggest waves
ever surfed happened at nazareth
and it's led to a rise in tourism year
by year driven by people visiting in the
winter to watch big wave surfing
in less than a decade nazareth became
the new capital of big wave surfing
but all the success has come with
complications
this is joao delgado a former fisherman
who's now a politician
a procurement
tomorrow here in lighthouse is going to
be crazy
when i'm in the water if someone does
like a really good wave you can see the
crowd just getting crazy and cheering
honestly i feel i feel nervous when
i feel ready and i'm confident like with
the people i'm surfing with my boards
with myself and
with my body i just want to go out there
and do the best performance possible
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yes
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well we hope to see the biggest wave
ever for us
[Applause]
it's like a
natural forest like fire that just has
such a big power that it keeps you
focused on it like it's hard to look
away
you get goosebumps it's something really
special yeah
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[Applause]
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foreign
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sometimes i feel a lot of pressure
because i'm the young kid from
nazareth you know and surfing big wives
i'm portuguese i want to represent my
country like the best way i can do it
room
they were like the real
badass the real heroes because like in
some giant days
they would manage to pass the waves to
the middle of the sea to fish to make
money and to bring food home but right
now big wealth surfing is becoming a
tradition i'm part of that new tradition
you know
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what
is
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h
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you