Nic Von Rupp Just Tamed A Giant Nazaré Tube By Hand (No Ski)

It’s not every day that you see a proper barrel pegged at (big) Nazaré. It’s not every year that you see one caught by hand.

To our recollection — and keep in mind we’re not standing on the cliff waving our ‘Go G-MAC’ signs out on the daily — the last legitimate, manually acquired barrel at Nazaré was in the 2018 event by Spaniard Natxo Gonzalez.

…That was until just a couple days ago, when Portugal’s Nic Von Rupp scraped into a wedging lefthander, pulled in behind the peak, and guided his 10’4 to the safety of the channel, which was occupied by two iconic big-wave lensmen — France’s Laurent Pujol and Australia’s Tim Bonython.

In the video above, you can watch all the different angles of Nic’s ride (starting around 4 minutes), which according to him, has been a long time coming.

“My dream was to get barreled on a huge Nazaré wave, and this day everything seemed right.. 15-20ft swell unfolding with some big barrels in the mix. This was one of the first waves of the morning. I paddled into it, saw it wedging, and knew it was the one I was looking for. I managed to get my 10’4 gun under the lip and finally got that tunnel vision I was looking for years. Hopefully this is just the beginning.” 

Oh, and you can’t miss his near-death-by-jetski at the 4:41 mark. Horror film stuff!