Throughout our trip(s) we have done little pre-planning, however when I knew that we were coming to Portugal there was one place I knew I wanted to fit in and that was the place of the big wave, Nazare.

I am not really into surfing in fact only attempting it once at Bigbury Bay in Devon some 30 years ago, most notable for getting badly sunburnt. As friends will know big waves and I don’t go together – broken shoulder Maracas, Trinidad comes to mind!

However I have always admired big wave surfers after seeing the likes of Laird Hamilton on the Extreme Channel, surfing the Jaws break in Hawaii with jet ski tow ins to get sufficient speed to catch the wave.

Back in January this year Garret McNamara rode a 100 foot wave off the Portugese coast at Nazare. So as this was on the way to Lisbon we went to take a look.

As you can see conditions at the time we were there were slightly different i.e. flat calm.

Garret McNamara – 100 ft wave

… and today!