Surfers rejoice: the biggest waves in the world have been found, and if you’re up for a challenge you can ride them too.

In Praia do Norte, Nazaré, Portugal, the waves are so high that this has consistently been the location of choice for surfers looking to gain entry into the Guinness World Records.

This was the very place where, in October 2020, Sebastian Steudtner tackled an 86 foot tall wave, earning him his very own place in the record books.

But why are the waves here so tall?

Well this is all down to a geological feature off the coast of Portugal.

Nazaré is situated on the west coast, north of Lisbon but south of Porto. This beachy area which faces onto the North Atlantic Ocean is harboring a secret under its waves.

The Nazaré Canyon is a mammoth trench that is 3 miles deep and 141 miles long.

In their book The Nazaré Coast, the Submarine Canyon and the Giant Waves, Pedro Proença Cunha and Margarida Porto Gouveia from the University of Coimbra in Portugal explain the reason for the high waves that keep surfers coming back to Nazaré year after year:

“Usually, when the large open-ocean swells approach the coast they start to slow down by interaction with the ocean bottom. However, at Nazaré offshore the ocean swells get focused in the submarine canyon that points to the coast and do not lose energy until they reach the near shore. As the waves emerge at the canyon head, they reach very shallow bottom and became suddenly very high.”

With this particularly unique geological feature in mind, it’s no wonder that these massive waves consistently feature at this specific place on the Portuguese coast.

Though Nazaré is record breaking for its surfable waves, this is not to say that the world’s biggest waves are actually the biggest waves ever.

But bigger waves than those found in Nazaré are alarming to say the least.

This is because they are usually a sign of a very destructive seismic catastrophe.

For example, earthquakes which result in tsunamis can sometimes cause waves that dwarf even those found in Nazaré. Similarly, it is suspected that the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs inadvertently caused a wave that was almost one mile tall – certainly not one for surfing.

But for the purpose of surfing, at least, the biggest you’ll find are in Nazaré.

And even if you want to beat that record, it’s probably better not to hope for anything bigger.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about the mysterious “pyramids” discovered in Antarctica. What are they?