Getty Image / PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP
- Mason Barnes is a surfer from Wilmington, North Carolina who is making surfing headlines worldwide for charging a wave estimated at 100-feet tall
- Barnes was in Nazaré, Portugal which is home to the biggest waves on the planet and though waves are tough to measure many are convinced this was 100ft or more
- Read more SURFING stories right here
Within the world of Big Wave Surfing, Mason Barnes isn’t a superstar but this week he’s one of the most talked about surfers in the industry. This comes after footage spread of Mason Barnes riding a wave in Nazaré, Portugal that was estimated to be 100-feet or more. Measuring waves is difficult for a ton of different reasons but the surfing community is pretty confident this is a bonafide 100-footer.
Big Wave Surfing is one of the most extreme sports on the planet. These surfers throw caution to the wind and block every warning signal being transmitted from their brains and charge waves the size of skyscrapers that could knock them unconscious in an instant if something went wrong.
I’ve personally had a conversation with a Big Wave surfer who was knocked unconscious and now gives motivational talks on coming back from the brink of death and quitting surfing never once crossed his mind despite nearly dying. It takes a special type of person to commit to a sport like that.
Mason Barnes Surfs 100-Foot Wave In Portugal, Possibly The Biggest Wave Surfed This Year
Check out this footage of Mason Barnes riding a 100-foot wave at Nazare…
Here is some additional drone footage of that ‘Freaky Friday’ swell at Nazaré, Portugal where Mason Barnes rode the 100-foot wave.
What’s the story behind Nazaré, Portugal and surfing?
Winter weather brings the biggest waves in the Northern Hemisphere. The same is true in the Southern Hemisphere but there are bigger waves in the north. And nowhere has bigger waves than Nazaré, a tiny fishing town in Portugal about halfway between Porto and Lisbon.
When the conditions are right, Nazaré’s canyon creates the best big wave surfing conditions found anywhere on the planet. And what’s even more wild is it happens so close to the shoreline that spectators can stand on land and watch these surfers ride the biggest waves ever surfed.
It was relatively unknown until recent years but Nazare has exploded onto the Big Wave Surfing scene on a global scale after multiple world records for ‘biggest wave ever surfed’ were set there. And as of now, it seems likely that the world record for ‘biggest wave ever surfed’ will continue to be broken at Nazare instead of elsewhere.
I also feel the need to mention that the photograph at the beginning of this article shows a surfer being towed by a jet ski in a wave at Praia do Norte in Nazare, Portugal. But that was back on February 25 and that surfer is not Mason Barnes, it’s just the best available photograph I was able to find from Nazare.