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After watching an episode of 100 Foot Wave, the HBO series featuring big wave surfer Garrett McNamara, you’ll likely be left with goosebumps—it’s anxiety-inducing to watch humans tumble down monstrous walls of water; it’s emotional to see big dreams ram up against unpredictable conditions; and eye opening to see how so many lives revolve around the raw power of the ocean. But season three also offers a new look at McNamara since it first began charting his journey to conquer the world’s biggest wave in Nazaré, Portugal. Four years after the show began, McNamara’s life has changed a lot following some serious injuries, and shifts in perspective brought on by starting a family, as have the lives of those who call the small fishing village home.
Over the course of five episodes, McNamara, his wife Nicole, and a gaggle of world-famous surfers like Justine Dupont and Lucas “Chumbo” Chianca reflect on what it means to surf adrenaline-pumping—and deadly—swells. And most importantly, it begins to ask the question few record-setting surfers like to face: When is enough enough?
We caught up with Garrett McNamara on a recent visit to New York to hear about both the personal turning points he reaches this season and the far-flung waves that inspired them—plus, the secret surf spots he hopes to uncover in the year ahead because, when it comes to surfing, it’s hard to ever say you’ve had enough.
You’ve done two seasons of 100 Foot Wave. How was it returning to Nazaré for the third season—how has it changed?
Nazaré has dramatically changed. The whole country of Portugal has transformed since 2010. The attention that the wave brought is unheard of, astronomical, unbelievable. Tourism in Nazaré used to close for the winter and now things are open all year. There was nobody on the road down to the lighthouse in the first few years we were filming and now, there are 20 to 100 giant tour buses every day and there are people just looking at the wave. They come all winter, all summer… even though there’s no wave in summer.
