Watch: Madeira, Swell Of The Decade
Nic Von Rupp is back on the chase in the Atlantic Ocean, intercepting one of the biggest swells in recent years.
The first wave beatdown is nasty, with the surfing action kicking off around the 3 minute mark.
Just cut the vision off before you reach 9 minutes, when the video takes a complete turn to influencer/travel add.
Comments
He is such a knob
10 days into 2024 and we have comment of the year!
Something about his German Portuguese rich boy vibe that just irks
I love that all these comments finally echo what I've always felt about NVR :) , because when looking at Youtube videos comments you would think that everyone absolutely deifies the bloke! Yet there is definitely a paradox about him: how can you be such a charger / so ballsy, and yet be so cringy at the same time? These things usually don't go hand in hand but NVR actually epitomises both extremes at the same time...! definitely unique in that regard
Why was I wishing the drone shot going at him on the cliff top knocked him over?
You're right Craig, first 9 minutes great viewing, with a solid over the falls @6:16. Apart from showcasing a beautiful part of the world, and until now relatively uncrowded breaks, the rest was NVR at his cringeworthy best.
Looks like Waimea.
VonRupp, T Bonython, etc... there's quite a few cringeworthies in the surfing world
He's living the dream, but.
A good surf vid and I also enjoyed the travel promo sections.
I've sailed there and to some other islands in the Azores and Canaries. Beautiful places, not surfing secret spots. Tourism is a large part of their income and many residents would welcome more visitors. Call Von Rupp cringeworthy but he charges twice as hard and lives twice as large as you.
Twice as much a wanker too... make that 100x
Enjoyed that, the whole lot, the travel part, surf part, actually a bit more surf would have been better. I think he was less knobby in this one, maybe starting to lose his knobbiness! It’s not always about the surf & nothing else, imho. Beautiful looking place!
I liked it too. The waves looked like huge surfcoast walls, stuck to the side of an island. The height of the island is amazing, found in 1420 does my mind in. Nic and the crew gave it a solid go too.
Who's surfed Jardim do Mar here? What's it like when you get caught inside? Can you just swim away from the island and find yourself in an ocean-size channel? What's getting in like - a Lennox experience? Or like parts of Europe, is there a protected harbour to paddle to?
I liked the tourism bit at the end. I can see family members enjoying the really high walks and views/photography. I can see it's sponsored by tourism Portugal, so this is where Nic is coming from here, it could go into a tour of the markets and trying food and explaining all the cuisine and night attractions and I'd be fine with that lol. Good vid.
It's hectic when caught inside. Like, you really wish you were not there. I panicked a few times. Lennox is Lennox though. haha. The ins and outs here have deeper water, where I surfed. Some long paddles though.
The community there is doing a big tourism push and surfing is part of that. It's all part of that push to get the place well back on the map to generate much needed income. That said, it's pretty expert level and to be honest I was out of my league at times.
From 1996 to 2002 I spent about a year in total in Jardim, a lot of that time shitting myself. The cliffs are huge (5-600m pretty much vert) and right there in your face, except for at Paul do Mar, and it's very easy to get caught inside in a nasty place.
Rocks are not as slippery as Lennox, but waves are generally much bigger, and getting in and out much trickier. I've had friends considering the 4km paddle down the coast to the marina at Calheta when the swell was a bit too west for the Jardim boat ramp.
It's an incredible place, and I feel very fortunate to have spent time there with just a handful of friends.
The German Alby Mangles of Portugal.
@ VJ. In “Barbarian Days” Bill Finnegan gives a scary account of surfing there on a large swell ,trying to get back into the harbour on dark and nearly getting swept down the coast Heart in your mouth stuff.
Yes, that's what I was thinking of, alone or one other out, from memory. Such a good book.
Spent a couple of months there winter 2000 - legit big waves as this and other vids show, but winds can be tricky - blowing side- or onshore on both N and S coasts at once! I spent a lot of time driving around the winding roads, with morning sick wife, on futile missions from one coast to the other, but occasionally it all clicks and there are epic days of powerful waves, as my icon pic here shows. Madeira got a swag of $ from EU to build breakwalls in early 2000s that destroyed, or changed, several really good waves there. So no paradise. They call Jardim a big wave point but it's a broad reef that different waves find different parts of, and hence a big playing field and easy to get caught out of position and hammered. Heaps of Atlantic power though, as the shelf is narrow. Further W towards corner of the island, from the cliff top, I saw some immense waves, inaccessible (I guess) other than by boat. A remarkable place well worth a visit while in Europe, but with caveats above. Bill Finnegan's story does it justice.
It hosts some good looking MTB trails too.
Enjoyed all of that-what a beautiful place. He’s just a full frother personality but seems like a good bloke. Charges hard every video I’ve seen of his which for the surfing are always worth watching.
Nice video. Madeira is a beautiful island, the sort of place you can soak up a different culture, explore and adventure without needing to dedicate months to it. Even with the exposure, most won't make the effort to get there so easy to find a quiet spot. Fishing is pretty good as well.
Whether you like him or not, it's a Portugal Government Tourism Promotion and he was most probably paid a tidy sum and all expenses trip with his babe. I thought it's a slick promo actually and was well presented showing what an absolutely beautiful island Madeira is (besides having to listen to Nick haha)
The place is so beautiful. I loved it and friendly crew. But i suppose this was well before NVR times and i was travelling solo. People take their time there. I liked it. Rent a car. I remember leaving Aus with my 6'4" and 7ft Maurice Cole thinking - yeh this'll do. Didnt know id end up on a mission to Madeira as planned to check out Marocco but looked at the long range maps and thought the wind would be an issue and looked some some good swell would be coming. Ive surfed Jardim and some of the other right and left joints on both sides of the island. Yes some of the spots like surf coast walls, broad and kinda rolling, but with difficult entries and exists most of the time. Remember one particular day surfing this point break/ rock run right back towards Funchal, this German surfer and his mates were out, some of them could surf but looking sketchy, paddled way too late, going over with the lip and coming up with a serious gash out the top of his skull. Paddled him in, thats was not easy with all the rocks and current. Needs to be at least 6ft to get going otherwise too close to rocks and boulders seem to upset the waves with wonk, steps and half lips appearing. Had to watch some of the bottom turns incase fins clipped a boulder and some of them were popping up just before the wave would swallow them. Some of the walls tempt you in close as they steepen up and run along. Found the main thing to be the wind. Some great long period swells ruined by devil winds. Seemed like only the tiniest bit off dead offshore and would swing side. Probably the cliffs. North side affected by this a bit less - prob the geography and when it was offshore up there i dont think it was not the prevailing trades. Anyway worth a look if youre over that side of the world but those winds.. Its amazing NVR got glassy as he did in those last couple of vids. I reckon if youre keen just go and if you get good waves then great, if not still a great place to see. Usually somewhere to surf but not always as good as NVR's poster mag page 3 spreads
Great breakdown. Enjoyed that heaps. As a heap of posts above. Cheers!
Beautiful island, always been on my list...not even for surf.
Old mate is painful. Surfers can be so lame.
Tourism ambassador nick van flog.
Shame they built the breakwall and made it low tide only
Where's Gaully??
And Facto too....the silenced one.
I know he's surfed it proper pumping.
I love that all these comments finally echo what I've always felt about NVR :) , because when looking at Youtube videos comments you would think that everyone absolutely deifies the bloke! Yet there is definitely a paradox about him: how can you be such a charger / so ballsy, and yet be so cringy at the same time? These things usually don't go hand in hand but NVR actually epitomises both extremes at the same time...! definitely unique in that regard