What It’s Like to Paddle into a 70-Foot Wave in Nazare

Tahitian big wave surfer Tikanui Smith believes it’s his destiny to break surfing’s gnarliest record: paddling into the biggest wave ever surfed. Currently, that record sits at 63 feet, set by American surfer Aaron Gold in 2016 at the famed Hawaiian break Jaws. Paddling into a big wave is far more challenging than being towed in behind a jetski. A surfer must have impeccable strength, timing, and bravery. Currently, Smith is being followed by a film crew with the HBO documentary 100-Foot Wave. He told Outside about a recent attempt on a 70-foot wave in Nazare, Portugal.

The wall of water was coming. This wave was so much bigger than all the rest. I thought it was my chance to break the record. Then I realized I wasn’t going to catch it. I was in the impact zone. It was going to break on me. I yelled at my safety jetski driver to come get me. He came in so fast, he hit my board. I grabbed the sled with one hand. I had maybe three seconds. I tried to put the board on the sled, but it was twelve feet long and so heavy.

Two seconds.

He started to gas up the jetski. I thought, Oh my god, I don’t want to die. But I’m putting him in the worst situation.

One second.

“Get out of here, go!” I yelled.

I turned. I had time for one breath. And then the wave broke.

Before that I had been in the jetski line-up by the Nazare cliff. There were 20 or 30 jetskis in the water there, which makes it dangerous for paddle surfers, and I was the only one paddling. Technology like inflatable vests and jetskis now allows so many people to come to Nazare to be towed in for the chance to catch one bomb of a wave. The local surfers had given up paddling because of the crowd. But they told me they were stoked to see me with my goal, because it’s the real spirit of big wave surfing.

So I paddled north of the cliff, away from the jetskis. I was alone. The swell was so big. I had caught some crazy waves that day with my big board. I had on my heavy wetsuit, with a hood, gloves, and booties, and my inflatable vest. The waves kept picking up like crazy. I was scared and mad at myself for being there. I cried in the water, because this was the moment I’d been waiting for. I’d given everything to make it happen.

n 2018, I was at the World Surf League’s Big Wave Challenge, also in Nazare. I was held under by four successive waves. I thought I was going to die. But under that fourth wave, I realized the ocean won’t kill me yet. That’s when I knew it was my destiny to paddle into the biggest wave. But the month after, I was in a mountain bike accident that nearly paralyzed me. Doctors told me I’d barely walk. And my fiancé worried I would die chasing big waves. I retired, dropped my sponsors, and started a tourism business in Mo’orea, an island in French Polynesia. I even went to a hypnotherapist, in 2024, to get my head around the idea of quitting big waves. But when I came out of hypnosis after three hours, the therapist said, “You’re not ready to retire. Surfing is in you. You are a phoenix, rising from the ashes.”

I started training that August to break the record. When I went to Nazare in February, I didn’t have any funds. I slept in a container in the harbor for three weeks. All the surfers told me they’d never seen anyone do that. Garrett McNamara came up to me and said, “Bro, we are so glad that young surfers still want to paddle Nazare.”

When that wave broke, I just dove. It exploded on me. It was like in 2018, when I went deep, so deep, in darkness. I inflated the canister on my life vest. It was fully blown up and I was still in the dark. I was under for maybe twenty seconds, which is a really, really long time for a wipe out. I finally popped up, beat up. I was focusing on not losing too much energy or oxygen. I could see three jetskis trying to come get me. They couldn’t see me. And then a second wave broke on me.

The impact was so hard I felt something break on my heart side, and on my belly. I was under again for a long time. I thought about my family, everything, even my dogs at that moment. When I popped up there was a jetski. He wasn’t even with us that day but he came to get me. I left my board and leash behind in the water.

I thought there was something wrong with my heart, it hurt so bad. It turned out my ribs were cracked. All the jetski drivers told me that watching me, they thought I was going to die.

Surfers the next day asked me how I keep smiling. I said, I live for this. I love to be pushing the limits, that close to death. It’s what makes me feel alive. But I cannot lie that I was so scared. I don’t want to die. I’m not the guy that thinks dying is good. But I also can’t wait to go back and try again. I’m careful with risk. I want to put every chance on my side to make this goal.

I still believe it’s my destiny. After Nazare, I went to a tahu’a, a visionary, one of the strongest in French Polynesia. I didn’t tell her anything about me. She took my hand and closed her eyes. She said, “You are an ocean warrior. Your animal is the whale. You’re protected by a whale.” The island I used to live on when I was a kid was a powerful warrior island. My family blood on my dad’s side used to be the crazy ocean warrior paratha, the biggest and scariest creature. She told me all my energy is good.

I respect the ocean a lot. But I’m convinced it won’t take me away. I’m more afraid to die in a car crash. I’ll be surfing big waves here in Tahiti this season, and then going back to Nazare in September. I know there’s a star above my head, especially in the water. I will be ready to chase the biggest wave ever.

As told to Cassidy Randall.