Veado. The deer-headed statue that brings together a 12th century legend and big wave surfing.

Legend says that in 1182, Fuas Roupinho, a local nobleman, was hunting deer on his horse one foggy morning, when his prey suddenly disappeared at the edge of a cliff. Roupinho and his horse were about to fall into the abyss when he begged for help from the Virgin of Nazare, and was stopped and saved just in time. Roupinho had a chapel built on that clifftop spot, and it became a pilgrimage site over the centuries — even explorer Vasco da Gama is said to have passed by in the the 15th century.

Forte de Sao Miguel Arcanjo

Looking out to the Nazare submarine Canyon from roof top of Forte de Sao Miguel Arcanjo

The Nazare Canyon extends from 50 meters down to 4900 m depth (Iberian abyssal plain). The upper canyon cuts through all the Portuguese continental shelf, almost reaching Nazare Beach, and extends to about 2700 m depth. In the area of the ocean located about the canyon, the waves travel very quickly and turn towards the continental shelf, which is much shallower. The reduction in depth is very rapid, not gradual. This causes the wave to swell spectacularly, reducing its wavelength and amplifying its height.

Sebastian Steudtner has surfed the possibly biggest wave ever measured at 28.57 meters (93.73 ft) in Nazare on February 24, 2024. That day both Steudtner and Lucas “Chumbo” Chianca both surfed potential new world records. Currently, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, Steudtner holds the title for “Largest Wave Surfed” from an 86-footer, also at Nazare, back in October of 2020.

Jetski Freeride World Champion, Abraham Hochstrasser, documentation and his watercraft.

The daily catch being being salted, sun dried and sold.

The art of laying cobble stones