The biggest wave ever surfed was ridden by Garret McNamara in Praia do Norte, Nazaré, in November 2011, with 78 feet (23.77 meters). Known for its big, perfect and amazing waves, the North Beach is under the influence of the phenomenon “Nazaré Canyon”.
This is a rare geomorphologic accident, the biggest in Europe and one of the largest in the world, consisting on a failure on the continental plate with 170 kilometres long and five kilometres deep.
The “Nazaré Canyon” channels the swell from the Atlantic Ocean to Praia do Norte creating waves with an abnormally large size compared to the rest of the Portuguese coast.
The “Canyon of Nazaré” is the biggest underwater ravine in Europe with about 200 km long, developing in the E-W direction and going down to 5000 meters deep in the abyssal plain where it ends. The canyon headboard is less than 1 km from the coast to SW.
This contiguity of the headboard to the shoreline harnesses singular oceanographically conditions that originate hydrodynamic and sedimentary transport processes, directly related to the presence of the canyon and its morphology.