This past week was certainly ‘one for the books’ for East Coasters as Hurricane Erin sent waves from the Caribbean on up through Canada. Some spots, like the Dominican Republic, went so big as to earn comparisons to Nazaré. Well, now that Erin has wrapped up with the American leg of the tour, waves aplenty are en route to Europe and the real Nazaré looks to have the earliest XL swell in recent memory.
I went to Nazaré back in June and, aside from a few windows, the legendary Praia do Norte was only serving up 2 foot shore break. That’s pretty common in the summertime as the giant waves that made the small Portuguese village famous usually fall in the winter months of October-April, with most of the XL days between November-February. But Erin could very well change that and Nazaré local, Nic von Rupp, is pretty fired up on what’s about to go down.
Yesterday Nic posted the above reel and said, “Never ever have I seen a swell like this in the peak of summer in Europe. Next week is going to be 4.5 Meters at 20 seconds. These are going to be huge waves, these are the swells we wait for the whole winter and it’s coming in the peak of summer. It’s going to be Nazaré at maximum capacity, 60-foot plus. France is going to be massive. Canaries. Morocco. Everywhere is getting blasted with tons of swell.”
Nic goes on to ask, “What’s going on in this world? I would love to hear what you guys have to say, any thoughts: climate change, heating of the Atlantic Ocean. I’ve never seen anything like this in over 20 years.”
One interesting comment pointed out, “It started as a little cloud that then blasted São Vicente, Cabo Verde in the early hours of August 11th. She developed into Erin and her swell will now make it’s way back to Cabo Verde almost two weeks later. Crazy and fascinating.”
Crazy and fascinating, indeed. As with any swell, there’s tons of factors to consider so stay tuned. One thing is to be sure, big time wave energy is on the way and many winter spots from Iceland on down to West Africa could see their best August swell of all time.
Related: The Biggest Wave from Hurricane Erin: ‘Looked Like Nazaré’