Garrett McNamara on How He Surfed the 100 Ft Wave

Maybe today's better for you, tomorrow's better for me. No, you're gonna get the wave of your life. You'll be super happy. It is truly an honor and a privilege to bring you this week's American Alchemist, my friend, and in many ways my role model, Garrett McNamara. Go, Jesse, go! Oh, the cold's out. Jesse, run, Jesse, run! Oh! Garrett might be the best big wave surfer of all time. In 2013, he broke the Guinness Book of World Records surfing a 78-foot wave in Nazaré, Portugal, a spot previously thought to be unrideable due to its massive, nasty waves that break erratically straight into a group of sharp rocks. Right, right, right! Are you ready for Nazaré? No way, you know I'm not. You can go right. No, not right in Nazaré. Only time you don't listen to me unless you're absolutely 100% sure that what I'm telling you to do is gonna kill you. Guy's name is Garrett McNamara. People who don't know Garrett might write him off as a crazy adrenaline junkie with a death wish, but he's actually an extremely down-to-earth, kind, loving person who is far more calculated and skilled in his ability to assess life and death situations than anyone realizes. He's constantly forecasting, simulating scenarios in his mind, and thinking about every little detail when it comes to riding big waves. What do you guys think is worse? A kick in the nuts or delivering a baby? A baby. Delivering a baby. 100%. What do you think? You never hear somebody go and kick me in the nuts again. We got a really good wave coming, boy! I met Garrett three years ago through my best friend and past American alchemist, Taro Isacopola, the founder of Four Sigmatic. Right when we got to his house, Garrett insisted that he take us toe surfing on the tiny 10-foot waves breaking right outside. I hadn't surfed in eight years, so out of pure instinct, I didn't let go of the rope until very late and almost flipped Garrett and Taro on the jet ski. Bad shot! Didn't let go! I also sliced a small part of my heel off, which Garrett generously agreed to superglue shut. This time around, I promised to make up for it and actually ride the biggest waves of my life. Luckily, a swell was just coming in. Today's a perfect day for you. Really? I'm nervous. Garrett's extreme in everything he does. That was almost on the rock. He was raised by a single mom and a cult, began toe surfing in the early 2000s, caught maybe the best barrel ever ridden to this day at Jaws, formed a team of friends and family that single-handedly created the modern-day big wave surf mecca of Nazare, and of course, broke the world record there. When I first met you, you told me that you'd go 40 feet underwater, you'd take a boulder, and you'd walk it across the ocean floor 40 feet. It's not normal. You don't want to go too far because that's when you black out. One time about a year ago, we decided to do an intense hour-long session of holotropic breath work together. But of course, that wasn't enough for Garrett who decided to add a three-minute breath hold followed by 20 push-ups at the end of it. Didn't you pass out? I think you said I passed out. Convulsed it a bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Something came out of me, a little demon. Yeah, I haven't been able to pass out doing that yet. You're acting like that's a goal. Everybody I do it with passes out, and I'm trying, but I don't pass out. Another kind of crazy thing I did with Garrett was combo. This Amazonian frog poison can kill you if you ingest it, but if you apply it to cuts in the body at the right dosage, you purge everything in your stomach, basically throw everything up, and you feel incredible afterwards. You still got the marks. Those ones? Yeah, there you go. I did three cuts along with everyone else there, which is considered the normal dose. Garrett, on the other hand, did 10. Our shaman, they said, I need to do times 10 everything. I think you do. In this epic interview, we talk about his childhood, his insane career, his almost psychedelic ability to lose control, the importance of his wife, Nicole, in his life, and the McNamara Foundation, which exposes the youth to nature so that they'll be better stewards of the planet. So without further ado, hit subscribe, sit back, relax, and enter into a day in the life of this week's legendary American alchemist, Garrett McNamara. Different parts of the brain have different activities. But you know that, don't you? I love people that you do love. Maybe you should interview me. There we are with Jesse. Mario's in the house. Carl, looking militant in the back. Welcome to our house. Check out Jesse at BallsDeep.com. BallsDeepInUFOs.com. There you go. 100% nuts, and we're not talking peanut. I checked out your channel yesterday. Kevin. Thank you, man. As long as he can't do any COVID stuff, or they'll cancel him. Yeah. Is that true? For real? Yeah. I literally am sitting on an interview with the guy that got Rogan in trouble. How can innovation happen if we're no longer allowed to talk to each other and explore ideas? Mm-hmm. All in the world right there. Oh, my God. Look at that. It's amazing. I'm honored to be here. Every time I come here, I just get so pumped up. You take me out surfing. I come back to L.A., I feel pumped about life. Your family and just seeing them is so beautiful, and that really affects me in a deep way, and so I'm honored to be here, and I really appreciate you having me. So why don't we go way back, because I think in some ways your childhood really formed who you are today. You're a person I see with no fear in any situation. I didn't realize that I was fearless, but my brothers, they always said I would jump off roofs. I would be the first to do everything. I have no interest in a 100-foot wave and a 120-footer. That way there'll be no ifs ands or buts about it. I feel like that goes back to your mom, Malia McNamara. There's a really interesting clip in a 100-foot wave where a kid falls next to her, and the whole crowd circles around the kid, and it's like, are you okay? Are you okay? And she just laughs, and she goes, That's what I never did with my kids. I like themselves up, and I just go, You come with an open heart, you're going to receive nothing but love. You come with your arrogance, you're going to get the house slapped out of here. Your mom joined the Christ family, right? And you were what, like six? I was six or seven, yeah. And the goal was to live like Christ, to live off the land, no material possessions. You guys went to Mount Shasta and tried to summon the aliens. What was that experience like? She was looking for God, and she took us up to Mount Shasta, supposedly the portal where the aliens come down. Did she say she made contact with God on Mount Shasta? We met the Christ family on Mount Shasta. Interesting. So that was her first contact. That was her first contact. Interesting. So she interpreted that as a divine event. I guess. I know that she was on a mission to find who her God was going to be, and we somehow ran into the Christ family. It was cold up there. We burnt all of our lively possessions, all of our money, our nice shoes, our clothes, everything in the fire, watched it burn up. No more toys, no more nothing, and put on a robe that we cut out of a sheet. And you had a little sheet for a blanket rolled up on your back, and that was it, bare feet from there on. I was always worried about making sure that I had food on the table. Interesting. Yeah, that was a little, there was something underlined from the Christ family that created this feeling of not being secure. Yeah. Yeah, no security. And you think that stayed with you a little to this day? You think psychologically? I finally feel very secure and very comfortable with life. Good. Finally, as of after the HBO show. Yeah. Before the HBO show, I still was kind of concerned about the next move and where we were going to make sure where our retirement was coming from, where we're going to make sure we have enough money to provide for the family. And now I feel like I'm there. I feel very secure, very, very comfortable. I think everything came together because we were focusing more on doing good things and giving back. And so everything just fell in place. Yeah. But to be honest, when I first started out, I was afraid out there in the small waves, a wave with a 10-foot face, I was terrified. I got a really good pounding at Sunset Beach when I was about 15. And I vowed to never serve big waves after that pounding. Getting your game face on? Let's do it. Ready. I mean, it could be six feet, eight feet. You don't want to go? No, let's do it. Okay. I'm scared, though. You'll be good. I'm only young. So I think it's really about surrounding yourself with the right people and facing your fears, facing the situations that make you feel uncomfortable. And the more that you engage in those types of situations that make you uncomfortable, you become comfortable. back foot first. I think the thing that I enjoy the most is bringing people like you out and just watching you have so much fun and go through your fear and get your wave and get your experience and come in with the biggest smile and maybe get a wave on the head and come up just so much more empowered. Yeah. All right. Oh, my God. That was six. That was awesome. That was the best experience of my life. Speaking of first experiences, Butchie Wong, 12 years old. Yeah. You move out here to Hawaii to tell me about your first surfing experience. You know, we were going to Butchie's house and hanging out with Butchie and he was our best friend and his dad had all these beautiful kneeboards on the walls. They all had like art, like paintings in the glass job. They were, and he asked his dad if we could take them out so we took three kneeboards out and we went right in front of the house. It was only a couple miles down the road and we went out there and they were kneeboards so you're supposed to go on your knees and we paddled into the waves and we stood right up. We weren't going to stay on our knees. Back then, we didn't have too much. We had moved to Hawaii. We were on welfare, but the ocean was a place where nothing mattered. You could spend the whole day and it seemed like a couple minutes. When Garrett and his brother Liam came of age, they both wanted to go pro as soon as possible, but various obstacles and opportunities would send them in different directions. I had gotten all the sponsors first and then I broke my back. Oh, I didn't even know that. Then he flew to Japan and got all my sponsors. Oh, wow. So that was depressing. He focused on Pipeline and Rockies, which were the two most photographed spots in the world at that time and he got more waves than anybody at those two spots so he was like the top of the top. He would drop in on anybody. Anybody, yeah. He had the visor and the neon John McEnroe. He was scrapping. He was scrapping an Irishman in Hawaii. He scrapped for everything he got. Garrett then decided to hang it up and get a real job opening up a surf shop. He opened up Epic Sports and like everything Garrett does, he went full speed. But the less time he spent in the water, the more FOMO, depression, and old bad habits started to creep back in. It definitely got depressing. Driving to work, looking at perfect waves and what am I doing? Yeah. At 35, the first time I drank coffee, started drinking coffee going into the store. Oh, man. Yeah. It's a dark spot. Bad move. Well, you know it's bad when you need the coffee for the energy. Then you're like, all right, what's going on? Why am I not naturally energized by life? Out of that FOMO and desperation, he wrote a 35-point business plan to keep surfing. Business plan for dummies. Business plan for dummies. Get out of here. I'm sure it's a great business plan. Do you still have it? I don't know. I don't. You gotta keep that thing, man. Seal it up. That's amazing. And you pulled it off. I mean, probably more than if you were to zoom in to today from the time you're writing this business plan depressed with the surf shop, you'd probably cry tears of joy, right? Like, you'd be like, I could never imagine all this stuff happening, or could you? I have always been very ambitious. So the store, it was gonna be the biggest, best monster. monster. And I had a lot of plans and hopes and dreams and they all could have come true. But as if it were manna from heaven for Garrett's career, tow surfing, which is the concept of a jet ski towing surfers into waves, burst onto the scene in the early 2000s. All of a sudden, this made 40, 50, and 60 foot waves previously thought to be completely unsurfable with old school paddling. Fair game. It was more of a way to get away from everybody. And I, you know, I didn't really mind the crowd, but, you know, it was nice to be on the outer reefs all alone, just surfing for the love of it. There's traditional surfing and there's extreme surfing. I prefer to do extreme surfing. Put your life on the line every time you go out. Around this time, Garrett caught one of the most legendary waves that's ever been surfed to this day at Jaws. When you see Buzzy and Laird and Derek surfing Jaws, in like, what, 2001, 2002, do you get the chills? Do you immediately know, like, this is my future? I saw them at Jaws and I saw them kind of not in the barrel and I'm just wondering why they weren't in the barrel and I was like, I gotta go over there and get barreled. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! You've got the ! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!