Portugal’s Oft-Overlooked Big Wave Spot Goes Off

One of his favorites was Jardim do Mar, also known as Ponta Jardim, a solid righthander that on its day resembles a cartoonishly good big-wave pointbreak. A lot has changed since Finnegan first arrived decades ago. Money has turned the area from a sleepy fishing village into a town filled with tourism amenities and expensive infrastructure projects. 

This wave and the threats it faced were the catalyst for what is now an international nonprofit, the Save The Waves Coalition. In a nutshell, in 2003, Will Henry founded the coalition to campaign and generate public support to protect surf breaks across Madeira, including Jadrim do Mar. Henry mobilized when the local government announced plans to build a seawall that could potentially destroy or damage the famed wave outside of the harbor. 

The town was fiercely divided, and when surfers began protesting the proposed development, things got violent. Signs were torn, punches were thrown, threats were made. Their efforts, however, led the government to agree to a scaled-down seawall. The wave still breaks, albeit only on a low tide, because the riprap causes backwash. It was a landmark moment for Save The Waves and preserved one of the jewels of Madeira, and it is still an economic driver to this day. 

Case in point, when the wave does break, it can get damn good and is a way more paddle-friendly option than Portugal’s more famous big wave, Nazaré. Watch Nic von Rupp, Miguel Blanco and Torrey Meister go prone during a bombing run of swell last winter.