Quotes from Garrett McNamara

Nazare is crazy. When you're out in the ocean, and you're a little bit past the wave, outside, it doesn't really look that big. And then, once you get towed into this thing, it is like coming down a mountain, like going over a cliff.

The pursuit has just been to find the 100-foot wave.

I always say it's not how big the wave is, it's how you ride it.

The scariest part is when you are coming down the wave and there is all this water coming down the wave and your feet are coming out of the straps.

I'd always surfed with my ego - I had to get the biggest, best wave - and a lot of it was for survival.

To acknowledge that the biggest wave in the world might be a shore break off a little Portuguese town no one has ever heard of flies in the face of what passes for reason in the surf world.

You know every wave is so different. It just depends on the ride, like when you come down and you don't make the wave and you get blown up and you just feel like so small, but also so alive, because you're at the mercy of this monster and its gotten hold of you and shaking you and rattling you.

It's just the most amazing feeling to be out there in the water riding waves. It's like walking on the water.

I went to Alaska a while back and surfed the waves generated from a glacier calving and ever since then, I've never been afraid in the ocean.

I caught every wave I wanted and I fell in love with big waves at 16 years old. Then it just was bigger and bigger from there.

I tend to get overly excited and want to just go. I just love, love big waves.

In Nazare, the ocean is known as a place of death, not of riding waves.

To ride big waves you have to be ready mentally, physically and spiritually.

I had gotten too comfortable. I was desensitized whenever I got in the water. I started riding big waves for that rush, but now that feeling is nonexistent.

I don't measure waves; I'm just blessed to be surfing.

When I was sixteen I was terrified and I vowed never to surf waves over ten feet tall.

Well, it was - big wave surfing was my job. And I had to accomplish some great feat every year. And we kept finding bigger and bigger waves until there was no wave too big.

Riding big waves was my passion.

All these waves are just so fun to ride and are normal to me.

I lived for big waves. It's where I felt comfortable and I could surf with ease. With smaller waves, it didn't feel as natural.

When I took off on nearly vertical waves that no one else would touch, people assumed I had no fear. When they watched me suffer epic wipeouts then come up smiling, it was decided I had a screw loose.

I got desensitized by riding so many big waves that I don't really get a rush anymore.

I've been soulsearching: why do I do this? Because I don't really get the rush on these waves, and I don't surf for records. It's more to do with my love for Nazare - I want to bring attention to the town.

The ocean is my church and my playground, and it's where I love to be. It's where I belong.