YOU'VE SEEN THE WAVE, BUT YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE WORLD AROUND IT.
Most days it isn't there, Nazaré is a fishing town with a lighthouse on a rock, then a storm spins up somewhere in the North Atlantic, a few days pass, and something wakes up under the water. The cafés go quiet, trailers appear, somebody's fuelling skis at an hour that should be illegal.
That's the world, it exists for a handful of days a year, it has its own people, its own rules and its own language, and it doesn't sell tickets. Worldpackers partnered with Nic Von Rupp to let you in.
Nic von Rupp
BIG WAVE SURFER. 3X TUDOR NAZARÉ CHALLENGE WINNER. BIGGEST WAVE AWARDS 2023.
Before the bombs and the magazine covers Nic was a nine-year-old bodyboarder who couldn't put his feet on a submerged rock without panicking.
His coach didn't let him paddle around it, he walked him onto the rocks again and again until they were just rocks, then six foot stopped being scary, then eight, ten, twenty, then the Canyon where the wave doesn't sit on the horizon like a mountain should, it comes at you.
And so he learned, you don't stop being afraid, you take the next.
Every world has locals.
Nic von Rupp
German-Portuguese big-wave surfer who went from junior contests to chasing the heaviest slabs on the planet, in Nazaré he's the modern charger: tactical, precise, always filming, he calls the day, not a host, not a guide, it's his world, you just get to be in it.
João Macedo
Portuguese big-wave pioneer, Big Wave Tour veteran, one of the first to paddle into swells this size without a ski, in Nazaré he's the conscience of the place: paddle-in purism, safety, and the ocean itself, he runs Hope Zones, the regenerative seaweed farm off this coast where you spend a day out on the lines learning and helping him.
Nuno Violino
Musician and big-wave surfer who plays violin in places a violin should never be, in Nazaré he's the one who turns the scariest water on Earth into something closer to art, he takes you out on the catamaran past the harbour to see the coast from the side nobody photographs and surf waves very few people know exist.
Things you'll put your hands on that most people only see on a feed.
The hangar
Big-wave guns lined up like they're waiting for a secret mission. Skis, sleds, spare fins, inflation vests, it's all closed to the public but you're going in.
The wave
Three surf sessions across the week, at every level, from white water on the beach to a surf safari out of the harbour to a tow behind the ski, nobody is left on the sand and everybody surfs Nazaré on their own terms.
The ski
The only way onto a wave moving faster than any human can paddle. One driver, one surfer, a rope, and a level of trust most marriages never reach.
The museum
Inside the fort under the lighthouse, the boards, the photographs and the records of everyone who has ridden here, Nic walks you through the history of the place and the riders on those walls.
The canyon
A crack in the seafloor that runs right up to Praia do Norte, few people understand it but you will get to know it like the palm of your hand.
The lighthouse
A red lighthouse inside an old fort, right where the canyon delivers, it's the most photographed spot in big-wave surfing and on a big day the walls are packed shoulder to shoulder.
The catamaran
Out of the harbour with Nuno Violino, sailing the cliffs between Nazaré and São Martinho, the coast seen from the water instead of the viewpoint, and a violin on deck when he feels like it.
THE SAME WATER THAT PRODUCES NAZARÉ'S MONSTERS IS BEING ASKED FOR SOMETHING ELSE.
João Macedo runs Hope Zones, a regenerative seaweed farm off this coast, its mission is to help legally protect 30% of the world's oceans and lands by 2030 in line with the United Nations marine protected areas agenda, starting here in Nazaré.
Kelp builds what scientists call biogenic habitat: shelter and food that pull biodiversity back and rebuild fish stocks for the local fishing fleet, it also captures carbon around five times more efficiently than forest on land, and that carbon can stay locked in the deep sea for hundreds of thousands of years.
The farm is being documented step by step from licences and ocean data to buoys, sensors, planting and harvest so it becomes a blueprint any surf coastline can copy, Hope Zones is a WSL PURE grantee working with SeaForester and the local surf community.
For João this is where facing fear ends up: doing something bigger than your own career, for you it's a full day in the water on the lines with the team, cold hands, slow work, and the part of the week you'll explain to people back home.
We've partnered with João and from today anyone can go there, help him build this dream and stay as a volunteer.
30%
5×
100,000s
Who gets in?
Fifteen people go into the house, five from the Worldpackers community, five creators and five places that are open and an application is the only way in.
Not the best surfer, not the biggest following, not the person who has already done everything, we're looking for people that have dreamed about this and have a clear why they should be there.
Five applicants
The only five places you can win, chosen from the story people write about themselves.
Seat 01
Revealed soon
Seat 02
Revealed soon
Seat 03
Revealed soon
Seat 04
Revealed soon
Seat 05
Revealed soon
Five from the community
Worldpackers travellers already putting in the hours somewhere in the world.
Seat 06
Revealed soon
Seat 07
Revealed soon
Seat 08
Revealed soon
Seat 09
Revealed soon
Seat 10
Revealed soon
Five creators
Worldpackers creators that film, write and tell our story everyday.
Seat 11
Revealed soon
Seat 12
Revealed soon
Seat 13
Revealed soon
Seat 14
Revealed soon
Seat 15
Revealed soon
- 18 or over, able to swim, honest in your application
- Comfortable in the ocean, any level
- Happy living with fourteen other people
This is not a big-wave coaching course and not a spectator tour.
You wake up looking at the lighthouse
Alluz Nazaré, Boutique Chalet By The Sea, six nights a few steps from Praia da Nazaré, with the lighthouse in view from the house.
You can see the lighthouse from here, the headland sits at the end of the bay and the red lighthouse on the rock is right there from the rooftop, from the terrace tables and from the sea-facing windows, so the place you'll be standing during the week is the first thing you look at over coffee.
On a big swell you can watch the whole headland light up from breakfast, then walk down to the sand in a couple of minutes, the rooms are white and quiet with the ocean at the window, the rooftop is where the group eats and argues about the forecast, and the boards live downstairs by the door.
- 6 nights in the old town, steps from Praia da Nazaré
- Lighthouse and headland in view from the rooftop and the rooms
- Rooftop restaurant over the sea, breakfast and the listed meals on site
- Board storage downstairs, harbour and Praia do Norte minutes away
Seven days on Nazaré's clock, not yours
29 November to 5 December 2026, the ocean writes the schedule, days move with the swell
Arrive
You meet the crew, walk Nazaré, move your body after the travel, and eat your first meal with the group.
- Alluz Nazaré
- Dinner included
- 3 activities
- Check-in and meet the crewTransfer into Nazaré, bags down at Alluz Nazaré, Boutique Chalet By The Sea, first faces.
- Walk the beachAlong Praia da Nazaré and through the old town, sand under your feet, the ocean on your right the whole way.
- Somatic session and welcome dinnerA movement session to shake off the travel, then the first meal together.
You won't just experience it.You'll be part of the story.
The whole week gets filmed and comes out through 2027, one part a month. This isn't a surf movie, it's fifteen people who said out loud what scared them and then went anyway, and one of those people could be you.
The thing you keep putting off
January 2027
Everybody has rocks
February 2027
SOMEBODY LET YOU IN
March 2027
Go scared
April 2027
THE CHANGE
May 2027
Your turn
June 2027
Everyone who applies gets each part by email the day it lands, whether or not you get a place.