Into the Deep

Garrett McNamara surfs Big Mama in Nazaré, Portugal in 2013 and puts it on the surfing map.

(Photo by Tó Mané, courtesy of Garrett McNamara.)

“Come in, come in... Are you hungry? We have lunch coming up and you won’t believe this...”

Garrett McNamara’s voice floated through a dense thicket of palms as he heard our footsteps approaching. His wife, Nicole, met us at the gate and began the informal tour of their Waialua property moments earlier as we walked toward the sea. She highlighted different spaces, key trees like ‘ulu, avocado, bananas, papaya and more. Guiding the way to a hobbit-like opening through a thick wall of Areca palms, she was not the only one who could sense the excitement in his voice.

“Welcome to our place,” McNamara beamed as he turned to make introductions. The venue for lunch was an open-air, roofed deck, with a full outdoor kitchen and a long table for at least 16. Lunch prep was in full swing in this outdoor haven. The sounds of a large knife chopping away paused only as McNamara started with “This is Chef Chris,” and fist bumps and nods segued to “with his fishing assistant and understudy, Barrel McNamara,” his 11-year-old son, who grinned sheepishly at meeting a coterie of new people.

More high-pitched voices quickly joined in as Garrett and Nicole’s younger children sidled up and tugged at hems. “This is Thea, and her sister Fe,” Nicole introduced the younger ones as Chef Chris got back to his lunch prep and Garrett added a healthy dose of honey to the kids’ batch of homemade lemonade chilling on the counter. The McNamara kids milled about, sensing they were also part of today’s limelight since school let out early for them, and proud papa took a moment to talk up the fish that was caught an hour or so ago on the reef out front.

“Barrel caught this Papio. Hooked it and landed it off the ski.”

The ski being shorthand for Garrett’s watercraft that lives in the river next to their place and gets used for everything from tow-in surfing on larger waves to sunset cruises along the shore and, yes, fishing expeditions on the reef. Chef Chris regularly goes out to catch fresh fish, and today was 11-year-old Barrel’s day to join him and land lunch’s main course.

At home in Waialua, Garrett and Nicole keep it simple — the kids, the ocean, and whatever comes next.

(Photo by Paul Strouse.)

Garrett and Nicole with their children: Thea (far left), Fe (middle) and Barrel (far right).

(Photo by Paul Strouse.)

One might wonder how this local kid turned pro, turned big-wave surfing pioneer, got from there to here — surfing pro events, traveling the world and its best breaks, splitting time between Waialua and Portugal, with the HBO series 100 Foot Wave wrapped up, a Guinness World Record for Tallest Wave Surfed hanging on the wall, and so much more on the horizon. As the papio and Moloka‘i venison dishes disappear, McNamara turns to Nicole and humbly asks her to fill in some pieces of the story. Despite the decade-plus since their chapter began, she tells it like it was just yesterday.

“Garrett and I met in Puerto Rico where he was surfing and giving back to the community, and I was doing a SUP race,” pausing before dragging out the “and....” as if reliving the moment, “I saw an incredible sense of adventure in Garrett and we got along great, and we decided to just run away and see what was out there.” And what was out there has continued unabated for the McNamaras and their kids since then.

After the synergy of that meeting brought them together, Garrett and Nicole took off on what might be described as an endless summer on a global scale. Traveling the world and visiting an endless itinerary of surf spots drew the couple closer together and set the stage for their future lives, mixing surfing, wellness, friends, and family.

Asked about Nazaré and its wave, McNamara shares how he first heard about it and wasn’t in a rush to try to surf it. A few calls later, he and Nicole decided to go to Portugal and study this mythical wave. The sleepy fishing village they found hadn’t yet been put on the map — but that was about to change, in large part thanks to McNamara’s exploits on the water.

With Nicole perched on the iconic lighthouse fronting the wave, serving as his eyes and spotter, McNamara the pioneer did what people around the world saw in the iconic photo of him outrunning the steep avalanche of water behind and above him. When one sees photos of Nazaré, it’s clear when they were shot: pre-Garrett or post-Garrett. The once-sleepy lighthouse perch is now packed with onlookers and visitors wanting to see the giant wave firsthand.

The buzz about Nazaré and other massive waves McNamara conquered would lead to the multi-season HBO show, 100 Foot Wave, which won Emmy Awards in 2025 for Outstanding Documentary and Outstanding Cinematography — accolades that join McNamara’s framed Guinness World Record for surfing the world’s tallest wave. Along with the series came talks around the world, splitting time between Hawai‘i and Portugal as new projects come online and future productions take shape.

Garrett credits Nicole’s background as a teacher as invaluable in corralling the kids (and him, as needed), keeping them in their school routines, and bringing a sense of organization and logistics to his calendar. The show may have brought his feats to the world, but what keeps Garrett and Nicole busy now are moments like today — time with the kids, taking them out on the water, and carving out space for the organizations that use surfing as a platform to bring disadvantaged, neurodivergent, or underprivileged children into the ocean.

Garrett continues to conquer some of Nazaré’s most powerful swells.

(Both photos courtesy of Garrett McNamara.)

Through organizations like Surfers Healing and the McNamara Foundation’s “Waves of Life,” the McNamaras find themselves back in the environment where they first met, and it continues to resonate as an important part of their lives, both on the North Shore and in Portugal.

“I love getting out on the water with people even on a medium day,” Garrett says, clarifying that “medium” doesn’t equate to 50 feet. “Even a day that’s 6’ Hawaiian can be huge for many people, so we like to pick gentler days to give people a safe chance to experience the rush of being on a board.” Being able to facilitate access to the ocean via surfing is something that Garrett and Nicole both believe is a core part of their lives.

Garrett pauses to look beyond the naupaka hedge along the beachside dune. In the distance is his home break in Waialua — the same familiar waves he surfed in the ’80s as a student at Waialua High School. He studies the water, then glances at Nicole, scans the deck for the kids, and looks back out at the water gently peaking in tiny crests over the reef. In those three looks, he sums up what it is all about for their future: the kids, the ocean, and always the next adventure.

(Photo by Paul Strouse.)