The seaside town of Nazaré in Portugal is a surfer’s paradise of sorts because of its enormous waves.
In fact, the beach of Praia do Norte (North Beach) is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having the biggest waves that were ever surfed in the world.
Onlookers typically gather at the lighthouse located on the beach to watch surfers from across the world try to conquer the waves. But even so, there are still some waves that are so enormous that it takes only the most fearless surfers to ride.
It just so happened that on the day that local videographer Humberto Santos was out taking some shots the waves were particularly monstrous. But where most surfers shied away from them, Santos managed to capture an amazing sight.
Riding on the crest of a particularly monstrous wave was a surfer! It turned out that it was none other than 52-year-old Ross Clarke-Jones, an Australian big wave surfer known for taking on these types of challenges. Clarke-Jones was also featured in a 2012 documentary called Storm Surfers 3D.
In the video, Clarke-Jones appears as a tiny dot near the crest of the wave. The fact that he looks so small gives perspective on how big the wave was.
There is a breathtaking moment when he’s swallowed up by the wave but amazingly reemerges still standing upright on his surfboard before being dumped by a much smaller wave.
According to Santos, “There were only a few surfers out there that day. For those kinds of waves, you have to have big balls!
“When I was filming, I thought it was unreal. Definitely the shot of the year!”
The scene is actually reminiscent of 1991’s Point Break starring Keanu Reeves. At the end of the movie, the villain Bodhi (played by the late Patrick Swayze) is allowed by Keanu’s character to ride a once-in-a-lifetime monster wave off the coast of Australia. Of course, that part didn’t end so well for the villain unlike in Clarke-Jones’ case.