At Jaws when things go wrong there’s typically a contingency plan for everything, but as Jesse Richman judiciously warns about the massive wave at Nazaré, “If you end up in the wrong spot you might not make it out.” Inspired to kitesurf the wave if ever everything lined up, Jesse booked a last minute ticket from his home in Maui to meet the swell of the season as it converged on this tiny port town in Portugal. Watching from the long sandy beach to the north of the iconic Nazaré lighthouse, Jesse eyed a monster set jack up in the distance. He had arrived just in time for one of the largest swells to hit the newly discovered icon of big wave surfing since Garrett McNamara dropped in on his 100-foot record-setting wave.
