All language subtitles for 100.Foot.Wave.S01E02.WEBRip.x264-ION10_English.HI

[TV static drones]

[bright tone]

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

- Aha!

- That's what you want
to run away from.

♪ ♪

- 2007, we're doing
some documentaries

with Deep Water Films.

We've got Ryan Casey.
He said, "I got this idea."

So he emails me a video,

and as this glacier
calves off...

- Oh, shit!

- It creates
this perfect wave.

- How big was what we just saw?

- It came from the top,
so it was about 300 feet high.

And the chunks that were
flying across the river were

probably the size
of the vans here.

- We went up there
and scouted.

It looked totally doable.

Get in the water
the first day and...

Overwhelming, terrifying fear

just consumed me.

I visualized myself
on the bottom of the riverbed,

squashed under
this massive piece of ice.

It just was so overwhelming
that I threw in the towel.

I said, "We're out of here."

- I don't know what's wrong
with my partner.

I don't know.
I think he's scared.

He's got a little scariness
in his eyes.

- Called my wife,
and I'm crying on the phone.

I'm like,
"I want to get out of here.

This is too much."

Please hold hands
and say a prayer for me

and Keali'i
and everybody else up here

'cause it's really dangerous.

And I love you guys.

And then my partner Keali'i,
who's usually the guy

who's real cautious,

he goes, "Ah, don't worry.
We're gonna be fine."

Sure enough,
the next day, I felt better,

and we went back out.

We were sitting there
for hours waiting

under this glacier
as she creaks and cracks,

and it's like a horror movie.

- Oh, oh, oh, shit!
Holy shit!

Holy shit!

Holy shit!

God damn!

♪ ♪

- It was spooky.

But we made it.

♪ ♪

- Oh--
- I got it!

♪ ♪

- We were there for seven days

riding waves and having fun.

Yeah, it was amazing.

So I go back home,

and now I go back
into the big waves,

and everything was, like,
so comfortable.

The fear
in the ocean disappeared.

So I couldn't get
that adrenaline rush.

And I surf for the rush,
so I thought,

"Okay, maybe if I ride
this 100-foot wave,

I'll get the rush again."

And so I quickly got
on that mission

to try and find
and ride the 100-foot wave.

[soft music]

♪ ♪

- Check out these monster
100-foot waves

off of Portugal.

- The biggest wave
ever surfed,

as high as 100 feet.

- To put that in perspective,

that is taller than
an eight-story building.

- Surfers are always looking
for the next great thing.

- It often breaks those brave
or crazy board riders.

- Severe wipeouts and waves
of mind-boggling heights.

- What happens here happens
nowhere else in the world.

- Biggest wave ever surfed.
- The biggest wave ever--

- Will be the biggest wave--
- The biggest wave--

- The 100-foot wave.

♪ ♪

- Measuring big waves
is complex, yet simple.

What you've gotta
understand is,

measuring a wave is
very different

from measuring a mountain.

That mountain's not gonna move.

You can go back
and measure it today.

You can measure it tomorrow.
You can measure it next week.

The wave is only there
for that fraction of a second.

And there's nothing you can
ever do to bring it back.

- The proper way
to measure a wave that

the big wave surf community
has agreed on,

one takes the best photo,
image of a wave

and decides where the bottom
of the wave is

and where the top
of the wave is.

Then, taking a guy who's
on the wave surfing it

and guesstimating how tall
he's standing in the photo

'cause remember, he's crouched
down as low as he can be.

And then literally placing him

from the bottom to the top,

counting,

as many times as you can,

multiply by

the supposed height
of the surfer,

and you have the size
of the wave.

So it's really nebulous

and, I would say, unclear
and controversial.

- It's almost impossible
to measure a wave.

It's all subjective.

We can't agree as surfers
what a 3-foot wave is.

But when you're talking waves

that could be
50, 60, 70, 80 feet,

and there's no actual facts,
no actual data,

how do you measure something
to a foot?

That's an impossible task.

- Measuring a wave,
especially when it comes

to giving out awards

and making
a world record wave,

it's really tricky.

It's just this wave,
this moving thing.

[ominous music]

- In 2010, I knew we stumbled
across something super special

like nowhere else in the world.

I knew that the biggest waves
in the world

were gonna be ridden there.

So me and Nicole came back
the next year.

Last year,
we came with no expectations...

Wow!

Left with hopes and dreams.

And those hopes and dreams are
now gonna be reality.

During the next two months,
first is getting ready

physically, mentally,
spiritually

to ride the biggest wave
ever ridden.

[indistinct chatter]

- So 2011 was our second year
in Portugal.

We would make these blueprints
all the time,

like, where we'd write
our goals at the top.

And the only thing we would
ever really write

at the top is
"the 100-foot wave."

- That's what you're gonna be
doing every day,

playing in the white water
inside.

- In 2011, there was no doubts
that Garrett was interested

in coming back
because he understood

what he discovered here.

The only doubt was
if he was coming more prepared

with more guys
and who was coming to help.

- CJ, I trained him in Florida.

The surfing he has down.

He'll do really, really well
on the waves surfing.

Driving, he's gonna need
a lot of training.

No way.
- How are you guys?

- The waves are perfect.
- Right now?

- All the time, left and right.

- I came last year,

and Garrett towed me

into a couple
really good waves,

and I got hooked.

It was a no-brainer
to come back this year.

I plan on building
a surfing career

starting from this.

And I'm gonna catch
the wave of my life for sure

in these next couple months.

- Just focus from here
to there.

- Burrow out the middle
a little bit more?

- So that year,
there was a lot of focus

on Garrett training CJ.

- I'm feeling really confident
with the ski.

It's just gonna come down
to once it gets big, you know?

In 2011, I really was
planted here

waiting for the waves to come.

And then eventually,
the day came

where the swell was picking up.

Then we drove out
onto the lighthouse

and looked out over the cliff,

and it wasn't big
by today's standards,

but by my standards,
it was big and stormy.

- Whoo!

- Take CJ out into the water
for the first time,

test his skills
and get his sea legs.

- So you ready?
- Of course I'm ready.

- What are you gonna do
out there?

- I've been waiting for
this moment for a long time.

[soft dramatic music]

I'm probably gonna catch

the biggest wave
I've ever caught today.

- [laughs] You are feeling
pretty confident?

- Uh, yeah, confident, nervous.

Heart's pumping for sure,
but it's good.

Good nerves. I like it.

Now it's time to go
make it happen,

go catch some waves.

- Yee-haw!

- It was the biggest
we had really surfed

up until that point.

I just felt
these nerves come up, like--

[laughs nervously]

♪ ♪

Once you decide to drop in
and the thing goes to break

and you're flying
down the face

and all of a sudden
you're going way faster

than you thought
you'd be going, it's--

[mimics water rushing]

It's like, oh, my God,
why am I on this thing?

But there's no turning back.

We're just shot out
of the rocket and we're going.

The only way through
is forward.

♪ ♪

Got a bunch of good waves,
and then at the end,

got a good, solid pounding.

I get off from that one,

and then there was
probably another six,

seven waves behind it.

And I was just floored,
whooped.

It was just the grinding,
the grinding, the pounding.

That was--that was tough.

- Oh!

CJ! CJ!

- We realized very quickly
we really need somebody

on the cliff, like the eyes
in the sky basically,

because the waves are so big
that when they're

in the trough of the wave,
they can't really see

what's happening,
and if somebody goes down,

you can't tell if it was left
or right.

You're getting
sucked up north.

Sometimes you're getting
sucked towards the south,

towards the rocks.

So it started out as safety.

My job was only
to say who fell,

where they fell,
which way they were going,

where they were,
and keep everybody safe.

- When we go out surfing
in Nazaré,

Nicole's biggest role is
to be up on the lighthouse

with the walkie-talkie
to radio to us.

She's really helpful
in finding people.

If someone wipes out,
someone's in the impact zone,

we know how to get to them.

- And then they started
to get really greedy,

so it's evolved
into, you know,

"Where is the set coming?

Which one should I go for?
How many are there?"

- Tell me which one to go for!

- You got a big fat outside!

- Oh, just keep telling me
where you see the best waves.

I can hear you perfect.

- Garrett and the whole crew
there in Nazaré

really led the way
in developing

a lot of systems
for big wave surfing.

And one of them is
the use of spotters,

which really has become
very important in tow surfing.

It might seem like chaos
where you've got people

barking these orders,

but it's a very choregraphed
dance that's taking place.

- Straight in
from where you are!

Go, go, go, go, go!
Fast, fast, fast!

More, more, more, more!

- No way.

[soft music]

- Come down, sit right here.

- The first few times
we went out

with me towing him,

it was kind of just madness.

- Bashing against the waves.

Always gotta go sideways!

Always sideways!
Never in, never out!

- I found it pretty stressful

to be just kind of tossed
into that

with Garrett
pretty much expecting me

to, you know, tow him in
and put him on waves.

These rights you were
putting me on right here?

That's what you want?

These rights you were
putting me on?

- CJ tried to tow me.

He put me in a couple waves,

but it seemed
like he was afraid.

- Couple moments of
miscommunication with Garrett.

- [indistinct yelling]

- And a couple hairy rescues.

- Go, go, go, go, go, go, go!
That way, that way!

- Yeah, I felt it.
I felt it hit you.

- It was just miscommunication.

He didn't know
what I wanted him to do,

and I'm pretty loud.

"Over here, over there!"

So it was
a little bit chaotic.

It just wasn't--
we weren't like that.

It was like, you know,
it was so...

- I don't know
why Garrett chose me

and asked me to come with him
that year and drive like that

in a place that nobody had
done it before,

a spot where he should have,
like, some seasoned veteran.

I think at that point,

Garrett was pretty over
big wave surf scene

in general.

- Once we discovered Nazaré,

the surfing world
discredited it

and said it was
a fat, mushy mush burger

that wasn't really a wave.

- People at first wanted
to dismiss it

as even being a good big wave.

It's stormy. It's cold.

Like, why would anyone want
to go there?

- Nazaré in the beginning
wasn't respected.

All of us thought
that it was just, like,

this random spot
that does something

that makes it look better
than it is.

And that wave's
a pretty messy wave.

You know, it's all crossed up,

and it's got a lot
of stuff going on.

- I put my career and my life
on the line

while everybody kept saying
it wasn't a wave,

so that hurt a lot.

- I remember just hoping
that Garrett would call.

I wanted to come back.

2010 was an introduction
and realizing potential,

and 2011 was just opportunity.

- We'll have fun, Andrew.
- Yeah.

- We got the second ski.
We're all good.

Look at these rights coming in.

- A good right selection.

- Yeah, that's looking good.

- I'm frothing. Can't wait.

[laughs]
- Cool.

- Couldn't turn...

I called Cotty back 'cause
I really loved his energy,

his willingness to do
whatever needed to be done

whenever it needed to be done,
and we were a team.

Really good synergy.

- When Cotty showed up,
it was great

because I'm getting to see
how Garrett does it

with some
more experienced guys,

how they like to drive.

It took a lot of pressure
off me.

- At that point,
we were all still learning

how to drive a ski at Nazaré.

Garrett was basically
training us.

- Yo, it plugs in!

- He wanted it done right,
you know,

and he wanted it done his way.

Sometimes he'd be shouting
from the rope,

like, when you're towing him.

- [indistinct shouting]

- And that's kind of hard
to keep your cool

and sort of not react
or focus on what you're doing.

Even when you rescued him,
he'd be shouting at you.

- Hey! Tell him to--

- You're scared.
You're stressing.

And then you've got Garrett
shouting at you

to top it all off.

- The toughest part about
tow surfing is being dependent

on a partner.

It is very similar
to a marriage.

You have to deal
with the personalities,

the good, the bad,
and the ugly.

Hey!

I'm a very fast-track,
focused, know what I want,

but I change very quickly
as well.

So it's probably very hard
for somebody

to be my partner.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Go again.

- Nazaré is not only a place
that requires the surfers

to be world-class,

it requires
the jet ski operators

to be beyond world-class.

I mean, galactic-class,
I think.

It's easily the hardest place
in the world

to drive a jet ski
because you have to keep going

through the white water.

A jet ski was not designed
to drive

through this aerated foam.

So you'll often get a spot
where you don't have traction

and you end up
stuck in the mud.

- It's like being stuck
in the mud

with an avalanche
coming after you.

It's really
the most dangerous place

in the world
to be in big wave surfing.

- You have to have a lot
of experience and confidence,

but you also have to be ready
for something to go wrong.

- [gasps]

- How you doing?
- I got slammed so hard.

- What happened after--
I saw you flying like crazy.

- I landed on my face.
It was like, doosh!

I don't know
how the hell that was.

Bonkers.
Falling on concrete as well.

Like, you know.
That hurt.

That was stupid.

I should have just
fucking gone straight.

- 'Cause it's too high?

- Just thought I'd get
off the back.

I didn't want to be, like--

but I should've
just gone with it.

- It was crazy.

- It would have been so easy
to, like,

"I don't want it."

You have shockers some days
where it's just like

everything's going wrong
and, you know,

you just want
to give it all up.

There's a lot of times
you question, like,

what the hell am I doing?

Like, this isn't fun.

The plumbing job seems like,

"Oh, that could be such
an easier option, you know?

Like, guess I'll just go back
and just do a normal job."

- Oh, he was always
a little daredevil.

He'd have a go, yeah.

He wouldn't see
any fear really.

Always in scrapes,
should we say, but--

- But a boy, a proper boy.
- Proper little boy, yeah.

- His asthma stopped him
from participating

in running sports.

But we encouraged him to swim
'cause we were told

that swimming was good
for his condition.

- My parents bought me
a surfboard

when I was, like, seven
or eight.

Growing up in Devon,
the people you saw most,

sort of the people
at your local beach, you know?

Croyde had a strong sea.

It was quite a good community.

The local guys, you know,
they were always a bit older.

They were the guys
that I sort of looked up to.

You know, I just didn't want
to be as good,

I wanted to be better
than them, you know?

[energetic music]

♪ ♪

- Last stretch and this guy's
about to take home

the silver win
in front of a home crowd.

♪ ♪

- At that point, surfing,
it was just a hobby.

It was never thought
to be a career path.

So I sort of, like,
worked in the surf industry

and just traveled a lot,
you know,

worked to travel and surf.

I never thought at any point

I'm gonna get
to do this full-time.

It was just, chase the swell,
go back to work,

chase another swell.

My dad tried to steer me
away from it.

"Are you gonna get a real job?"
sort of scenario,

which is why I did
the plumbing.

That was my dad's thing.

It was like, you've gotta have
a profession.

You know, a skill, a trade.

And the surfing isn't it,
you know,

and it's never gonna be.

- I think
I might have forced him

into being a plumber.

I don't know whether
he resented me for that.

But he resented plumbing.
There's no doubt about it.

- I got into this rhythm

where I was, like, working
six days a week,

and I just found myself
going down this path.

I was, like, looking
into the future,

and I could see myself,
like, sitting in the pub

at, like, 50, 60, saying,

"Oh, I could've done that,
but I didn't."

You know, "I could've."

And I really didn't want to be
that guy sitting there.

Kind of made me, like, sort of
wake up a bit, you know?

Like, okay, all right,
don't be that guy

that could've done something
but didn't.

When I got to Nazaré,

things just gelled,
didn't they?

Everything just fell
into place at the right time.

- There's different
weather sites that we look at.

And when a storm comes up,
it's a blob on the map.

When the blob is red,
you know it's gonna be big.

- Nazaré doesn't create those
really good rideable waves

every single day.

It's a really complex
sort of calculation

of the swell period,
the swell angle,

the height, the wind.

All these variable
have to come together

for these giant waves
to show up.

- The swell in 2011,
we had never seen

a red blob that big.

- I was parked
outside a fish factory

on the west coast of Ireland.

My phone rang,
and it was an American number,

and I immediately knew
it was Garrett McNamara.

And he said, "Al, there's
a really big swell coming.

I think this is the one.
Can you come down?"

When I got to Nazaré,

there was an air
of excitement,

but there was definitely
an air of, what is coming?

'Cause although
we had been out there

and we'd surfed big waves,

we felt that this was possibly
gonna be the biggest ever.

- Everything's good.
Everything's ready.

We got Andrew Cotton,

Al Mennie, CJ,

and we're gonna get
a giant wave.

- I don't remember sleeping
very well that night,

thinking about what's gonna
happen tomorrow.

I remember lying there,
and I heard a noise,

and I kept thinking,
what's that noise?

And I was listening
and listening.

It was the surf breaking
on the shore with such force,

it was making
the door tremble.

Every now and again,
there'd be the chh, chh.

[door rattling]

Of all the nights
I've been here,

I've never experienced
this before.

I really started to wonder,

is this really gonna happen
tomorrow?

We're about to see
the biggest surf ever

in the history of surfing.

[thunder crashes]

- Woke up early this morning,
checked the buoys,

checked the swell.

It looks really promising.

We're gonna be riding
the biggest waves

we've ever seen.

- Thierry Donard was there.

He makes those movies
mainly about heli-skiing.

And he had rented a helicopter

because we thought it was
gonna be the biggest day ever.

- I used to hear about
this canyon long time ago,

and when Garrett told me
the project,

I decided to come with him
to do the shooting.

Is no point to surfing
the biggest wave in the world

if nobody film.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- Amazing.

Good to get a perspective of
what's going on from up there.

- The setup we have was
absolutely avant-garde.

The challenge is not only
the way to surf.

The challenge is
to get the right jet ski,

the right crew.

So, guys, what are you thinking

about the swell that is coming?

- What to say before a swell,
you know?

Don't want to jinx nothing.

- We're not surfers.
We're gladiators.

Nazaré, the wave seems
to be unique,

and it's got the fear factor,
that's for sure.

- It's all exploration.
We haven't done this before.

The biggest swell
that I've seen,

and we're just gonna see
where can go,

how far we can push it.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

- My stand-out memories
of Garrett these past years

was his mindset,

belief in, like,
anything's possible,

that the waves come to you,

how you can manifest a moment
with energy and visualization.

- I don't get butterflies.
I don't get nervous.

I've surfed the wave
so many times in my mind,

just a matter of it coming.

- I threw these figures around,
you know, 40-foot waves,

50-foot waves, 60-foot waves,
100-foot waves, right?

That's very difficult
to understand

if you don't know anything
about surfing.

The best way to think
about it is,

if you were in a tower block
or an apartment block,

maybe you're in your apartment
watching this on TV right now,

look out the window.

That's the size
of these waves.

That's the sort of size
we're talking about.

- Just, like, Mother Nature,
isn't it?

You can feel the energy.

It doesn't matter
how strong you are, you know,

or how well you can swim.

There's no amount of training
that can prepare you for that.

- We filmed all day,
and it was massive,

and it was super fun.

And we were catching
these beautiful waves,

wave after wave after wave.

You and your friends out
in the middle of the ocean

just riding these giant waves,

just...
[mimics wave crashing]

It's like a dream.

- For me it was a dream.
This place, it's amazing.

It's unique in the world.

I never seen a wave like this.

I mean, I couldn't believe
this happened.

- I was on the backup ski,
waiting patiently,

and they're surfing
and they're doing their thing,

and then the moment comes.

Garrett's like,
"You ready to surf?"

So I get on the rope.

I see this massive thing
rolling in from the ocean.

He puts me on it.

I ended up, thankfully,
being right in the sweet spot.

[dramatic music]

When you're in the sweet spot,
you're dancing with danger,

you know,
'cause one little mistake,

and you're too far back
on the wave,

and it'll swallow you.

And then going too fast,

and you're kind of out
of the spot.

[whooping]

That was definitely
the biggest wave

that I've ridden,
and it was ridden well,

you know,
ridden in the sweet spot

as best as I could.

That was amazing.

♪ ♪

That lights me up
to think about that.

- When I get stuck in my head

and I start thinking
about things,

I've gotta make a point
to, like, stop myself

and really focus my thoughts
on what I want to happen,

not on other things,

'cause it's two people
that I love more than anything

in the world, you know,
my brother and Garrett.

So seeing them
do something together,

something in the ocean,

and something they both
love so much,

it's incredible.

Then there's the other side
of it too.

- You're not there
to conquer it.

You're there just
to experience it briefly

and then get out, you know?

And that's, like--
it's pretty amazing.

No one conquers the ocean.

It just doesn't happen.

Flow with it very briefly,

and if you're lucky,
then it'll let you go.

[unintelligible]

It's probably one
of the best feelings ever.

- You learn a lot
about yourself

because you're putting
yourself in positions

and situations that you
shouldn't necessarily be in.

At Nazaré in particular,
there are waves

that come through
that, sometimes,

you know you shouldn't go on,

but your heart is telling you
something else.

And often it's those waves
which are the most rewarding.

But those waves are definitely
the most dangerous.

♪ ♪

- At the end of the day,
Al lost his board,

so Garrett had to go
into the inside

and pick him up.

- Garrett came to rescue me,

and a wave stood up
in front of us.

- And this wave was coming,
and I thought I could make it.

- And as he climbed the wave,
he decided at the last minute

we weren't gonna make it.

- And it just
kind of caught us,

over the falls,
upside down and backward.

I jumped off.

- He bailed,
but I didn't know this.

And the ski goes up,
and I'm still holding onto it.

- Then--
[mimics crash]

And then Cotty comes in
and grabs me,

takes me to the beach.

- Cotton took Garrett in,
put him on the beach,

came back, and got me.

Then Garrett and I are
on the beach,

and we've got local guys
trying to help us

get the ski out of the water.

Paulo and all those guys are
down in there.

They want to rescue the skis.
We need the ski.

Meanwhile, Cotton is out
trying to get back out

and go to the harbor,
but at some point,

he got knocked
from the jet ski.

- As I was coming out,
I just got washed off it.

Literally, I couldn't hang on.

- Garrett and I didn't
know this.

We were standing on the beach.

We didn't know
he'd lost the ski.

All we could see was
these huge waves breaking.

So now he's out there
on his own,

and the jet ski's
literally going around

and getting away from him.

- And I was like, this is it.

In the middle of it,

and I just grabbed
the side of the sled

and climbed up on,
and it was still running.

I just made it out.

If I'd lost it, then I would've
been in the worst--

I was, like, miles from shore,
not out the back,

just, like, right
in that middle bit.

♪ ♪

- Can't be complacent.
Gotta be focused.

When the waves are smaller,
you can get away with slip-ups

and, you know, nobody dies
and maybe a little hurt

here and there.

But once we start playing
with bigger

and bigger Nazaré waves,

you know, those mistakes,
you pay.

You really pay.

- Teamwork in Nazaré is
so important.

Everyone needs
to be sort of gelled.

- Having one tow team
and one rescue guy,

even that isn't enough.

It doesn't matter how good
Cotton is on the ski,

how good I am on the ski.

You can still panic.

You cannot predict
how everything will happen

in the moment.

Something could go wrong.

- Cotty, I wasn't gonna
say anything,

but, like, I saw Al coming up,
and I just noticed

that, like, you picked Garrett
before him.

He might be pissed.
- [laughs]

No, listen,
he was the first person I saw.

I don't--that's--
[laughs]

And I was gonna stop
and pick Al up,

but Garrett was like,
"Just get me to the beach."

- Yeah.
[laughter]

I didn't see you.
I couldn't see you.

[laughter]

That's exactly what happened.
He left me.

But he took the old man,
took him in.

[laughs]

- We get the ski
off the beach.

We had a tractor in place,
brought it back to the harbor,

and I'm working on the ski
all night

'cause I knew there was gonna
be waves the next day.

It was about to start,

and then it exploded
and caught on fire.

- Yeah, the ski was totaled,
and Garrett was beat up.

- Then we just left it,
went home.

And I was defeated,
I guess you could call it.

- The next day was

a pretty strange-feeling day.

There was
this kind of ominous feeling.

It was kind of
a heavy feeling of the day.

- The next morning,
Garrett's like,

"I'm not even
going surfing today.

I want nothing to do with it."

- There was no plan.

It was like, we probably don't
have conditions to do nothing,

so no stress.

Let's see what happens.

- When we see the first light,
we understand,

"Hey, wait a minute.
This is perfection."

And it was a perfect morning.

- On that day,
the sea was, like,

clean, beautiful blue.

It was, like,
the perfect condition.

Al Mennie and Cotty,
they went to wake up Garrett.

- I remember Cotton and I had
to go to his hotel room

to see Garrett and get Garrett.

Normally, Garrett was there.
He was ready to go.

And this morning was
slightly different from memory.

- I was usually the guy
who gets up super early

and excited,
and I was pretty exhausted.

And the boys came,
"Come on, Garrett.

"It's bigger. It's better.
Let's go.

We can't go out without you."

And I said, "Okay, I'll go,
but I'm just driving.

I'll drive you guys."

We're in the warehouse.
Everybody's suiting up.

And I remember walking up
to everybody.

I go, "Look, I'll go out there
with you guys,

"but we're going out there
pure and simple

for the love of it, for fun,
just to go have fun."

Surf for the right reasons,
just to do what we want to do,

not for anybody else
except for ourselves.

Not for this, not for that,
just to go get waves

and have fun
and do what we want to do.

- Yeah.

♪ ♪

- I was on the lighthouse
with Paulo and Pitbull.

There was nobody
at the lighthouse.

It was, like, empty.
It was just us.

- There was
no other surfers there.

There was no other,
like, film crew there.

It was just--I don't know,
like, a real magical day,

you know?

I think Al surfed first.

- Al Mennie caught
a couple waves.

Then he lost his board.

Cotty caught a couple waves,
maybe even one wave,

and then lost his board.

- So we're going back out,
and they're like,

"Garrett, you go, you go."

I really didn't feel
like surfing.

I went, "Nah, I'm good."

- I think it was me.

I think I actually said
to him,

"Come on, you may as well get
a couple anyway."

- Luckily, I had my board
out there just in case.

Cotty tried to tow me
into one,

and I'm like, "Eh."

I didn't go.

Nothing really felt right,
and I'm just like,

"I'm not feeling it."

So I do my breathe up.

[breathing deeply]

Resetting.

And I open my eyes.

And I reconnect.

[upbeat music]

And right after I did that,

Nicole gets
on the walkie-talkie.

- Oh, a big set.
Big set!

Ooh.

[indistinct radio chatter]

- Giant.

- Cotty pulls me up
on the rope,

and then everything felt good.

I was on the rope
like this new man.

And then I see this--
biggest wave I've seen.

Whole horizon.

[heart beating]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Yeah! Whoo-hoo!
- Whoo!

Whoo!

♪ ♪

- [laughs]

Huge one!

[laughter and cheering]

- And then Nicole goes,
"That was it!

That's the biggest wave!
Come in. Go to the harbor."

- Whoo-hoo!
- Time to go to the harbor!

Let's go make a baby!

[soft music]

♪ ♪

- Whee-hee!

- Whoo!

- After the wave was ridden,
they didn't surf more.

All of us that were there,

we knew that something special
had happened.

- When we first arrived
at the harbor,

the look on their faces
was evident.

What had just happened,
it was obviously something

out of this world.

And at the time, I knew it.

I had the best view obviously

because I was sitting
right there in front of it.

And I could see the whole
big slope of the wave.

He was just charging down it,
so focused,

looking straight down
the thing.

And I just remember looking
and going,

"Oh, my God.
That is a beast."

Like, I had seen big waves all
around the world at that point.

I had been all over the world
surfing big waves,

and being there at that moment
in time,

I was in no doubt that this was
the biggest wave ever ridden.

- I remember standing
in the apartment.

All the guys who were
in the media side of it

had all their laptops
all around the table,

and seeing the image
was incredible.

It's not until you see
a photograph--

it's a flattened image,
it's a 2D image

where you're this big
and the wave's this big,

where you can actually go,
"Oh, my goodness.

That's massive."

- It was substantially bigger
than anything that day

or that we had ever seen.

- It was just insane.
There was no doubt.

We knew it was
the biggest wave ever surfed.

- Everybody just felt
a lot of accomplishment.

Like, we did it.

We knew that that wave was
gonna be enough

to prove to the world that
Nazaré was the biggest wave

in the world.

- Of course Garrett rode
the biggest wave.

There's absolutely no doubt
about it,

and he should be the one
that gets the credit for that.

However, there was multiple
local men involved

in making that happen.

In fact, I think the local men
in Nazaré and the structure

and the setup and the vision
probably played more

of a vital role in the surfers
being able to surf

at Nazaré
than the surfers themselves do.

We're all outsiders.

Like, there's an American,

an Irishman,
and an Englishman.

We're not
local Portuguese people.

We don't own anything.
The Portuguese own that.

And they should take ownership
of it.

And they should be
the proudest ones of it all.

- It was definitely, for me,
one of the best days

of the project.

We felt extremely proud.
[laughs]

[cheers and applause]

- We understood
that was a special moment.

And we need to send this clip
everywhere.

- They sent it out
to ESPN first.

- The Association
of Surfing Professionals--

- ESPN got a hold of it

and just blew it up,
ran with it.

- Garrett McNamara.

- Down in Portugal,
Garrett was towed

into a rogue wave
at the north canyon.

- And then the world ran
with it.

- Now here's something that you
just have to see to believe.

- While you were at work
surfing the web yesterday,

Garrett McNamara was surfing
one of the biggest waves

in the world.

- The definition
of risk-taking nerve,

a surfer riding
a moving mountain of water

off of Portugal,
smashing the record

for the largest wave
ever surfed.

- Look at him go.
Unbelievable.

- That blip right there
on the top of the wave,

that's extreme surfer
Garrett McNamara.

- Surfer Garrett McNamara.
- Garrett McNamara.

- Garrett McNamara.

- Garrett McNamara claims
that he has now surfed

the biggest wave ever.

- Was this a new record?

Well, we won't know
until the spring.

That's when they announce
the official measurements.

- It was a snowball effect
of media, media.

That wave was just like
an endless mountain.

Just kept--could never get
to the bottom.

- It was wild.

We didn't sleep for three days
because of all the interviews

in the different time zones.

[laughs]

- What we wanted to do
with this story was

to take the viewer as close
as most people will ever get

to a big wave.

There's a moment
where I look back,

and you actually see this wave
coming down.

- Anderson Cooper became
like a friend.

- I will never forget
his description

of what it's like
to ride a big wave.

- You let go of the rope
and you come down.

- [as Garrett]
It's like riding a thing...

- Sucks. It double sucks.

- Down a building...

- It's gonna barrel.
It's gonna barrel.

- But the building's collapsing
on top of you.

- [mimics crashing]

- And then you just
make it through.

- Rah!

- So that was my impression
of Garrett.

- The news catching wind of it
created a lot of excitement.

With that wave just has come
so much exposure.

- The largest and meanest waves
in the world

slam into a headland
in Portugal called Nazaré.

- That was the moment
when all eyes came on Nazaré.

Doors blew open,
and everybody could see in

and see these waves are
the biggest in the world.

And there's the guys
that are doing it.

There was no turning back
at that point.

- It just kind of went viral
after that.

And then we put it
into the XXL Awards.

- The idea
behind the XXL Big Wave Awards

was to elevate the status
of big wave surfing.

Here's these guys
riding 50-foot waves,

and what do they get?

They get a little picture
in "Surfer" magazine,

and their buddies buy them
a beer at the end of the day

'cause they rode
the biggest wave of the day

or maybe even the year.

So we proclaim someone
as being the champion

that rode the biggest wave
of the year.

- And the winner is...

both: Garrett McNamara!

[cheers and applause]

[sweeping orchestral music]

♪ ♪

- First, I would like
to thank the town

of Nazaré in Portugal.

That is my family,

and the people
are just so amazing there.

It's the best kept secret
in Europe--in the world,

for that matter.

Biggest waves I've ever seen.

And I'd really like to thank
Nicole, my love, over there.

Thank you for everything,
Nicole.

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

- We have a nail-biting
new world record

to tell you about.

- A new Guinness World Record

for 44-year-old
Garrett McNamara.

- His ride
just officially becoming

one for the record books.

- The folks at the
Guinness Book have certified

the wave is 78 feet tall.

- Ruling that McNamara
holds the title

for the largest wave
ever surfed.

- That is the key moment
to all of this.

Until then, nobody
on the other side of the world

would believe that Nazaré would
have the biggest waves

in the world.

Nobody would believe in us.

And from that point on,

when that wave started
to appear everywhere,

nobody could ignore Nazaré.

- Place is called
the Nazaré Canyon.

That is just unbelievable.

- The wave came,
Garrett rode it,

and I knew it was really,
really big.

I was really hoping
it was, like,

about 10 to 15 feet bigger.

The real job
would have been done,

but now we still are waiting
for one out there.

- Um...no.

I drove Garrett
into the world record wave.

Couldn't have been more stoked.

Do you know what I mean?
Like, you kidding me?

Having that opportunity
to do that?

Like, that is
a career highlight.

I think that's
the quite unique thing

about big wave surfing is
that it's not always gonna be

you surfing it--
you and the team.

Garrett was towing me
ten minutes

before that world record wave.

He wouldn't have seen the wave
and not towed me.

He would have done
exactly the same.

Sometimes it does seem unfair
that it's just the surfer

that gets the recognition,
you know?

But I never at any point
was like...

like, jealous or bitter.

I was, like,
quite the opposite, you know?

- Garrett had the objective
to be the one

to ride the biggest wave,
and that's what happened.

And it almost felt
like it was meant to be

in a strange way.

But you can never predict
who will be the one

that gets it.

Some days when there's
multiple massive waves ridden,

it's almost unfair to say,

"Oh, such and such
rode the biggest one,"

whenever everybody else also
rode equally gigantic waves

that might have been a foot
bigger or a foot smaller.

But on this day,
Garrett's wave, without doubt,

was the biggest of the day.

He was the one in the place
at the time.

Cotty spun around onto the wave

and put Garrett right
onto the center of it,

and he looked like he was
in the perfect spot

at the perfect time.

Everything was
sort of perfect.

Couldn't have been better.
It's perfect.

- Say perfect one more time.

- Perfect!
- [laughs]

- Yeah, we had a good...

good few years together.

- The reason Cotty and I have
got so far with it

and feel so confident with it

is because we've always
been together.

And a lot of other guys
out there,

maybe they haven't got
a solid partner they work with.

They change partners a lot
or wherever they go

get a different partner.

Cotty and I have always
been together.

It's made us a good team.
It's made us strong.

Like, I knew whenever--
Garrett and I come off the ski

the other day, and the ski
washed up on the beach,

I knew he was
coming in somewhere.

I just knew in my mind
that whatever he could do,

he would get to me.

And you don't have that trust
in everybody.

And you need to have
that belief and bond

with somebody in situations
like that.

- At the time, it felt like,
you know,

you and Cotty were a unit.

Was there a reason that
you stopped working together?

- I can't comment
on his reasons

and his actions
and what decisions he took

with his surfing,
his surfing career.

For me, I wanted to return
to Ireland

and focus on my own projects.

He clearly wanted to focus
on something else.

That's up to him.

I've gone back to Nazaré
a few times,

but it's definitely not
my focal point.

There's far more to life
than focusing

on one big wave spot
in the world,

in my personal opinion.

- We did, like, two seasons
down in Portugal,

and then he wanted
to spend more time

sort of just in Ireland.

Al had a business
and work commitments.

You know,
I didn't have a business.

I knew that I didn't want
to be plumbing.

I just saw it
as an opportunity.

It was now or never.

To have that opportunity
to surf with Garrett

and tow him
and be taught by him,

I wasn't gonna pass that up.

You know, there's no way.

When Garrett broke
the world record,

I knew at that point
in my surfing career

that I wasn't ready.

I couldn't have surfed that
wave like Garrett surfed it.

Wouldn't have surfed it
like he'd surfed it.

But now I could surf that wave
how I want to surf it.

And I'm more ready now.

At some point,
I want to have that ride.

I want to get that wave
of my life.

I'll be devastated
if I don't get an opportunity

to have that moment, you know,
to have that wave.

There will be the day when
you put it all on the line.

When the day comes,
it's just being ready.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[bright tone]