Pororoca : foto Clément Gargoullaud / Media Venture
K38 Rescue Files
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K38 Rescue
Great Enormous Noise - Surfing Brazil's Pororoca
Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 22 June, 2005 : - - The name of this legendary Giant Wave, which flows upstream is "Pororoca." To ride it is the ultimate rush! And surfing stars such as Ross Clarke-Jones, have traveled all the way to the Amazonian Rainforest to explore it.
We are standing on the shore of a river in northeastern Brazil, with our feet stuck deep in mud, waiting for the wave many call the "Monster" or "Killer," or simply just "Pororoca." The word comes from the native Indian language and is aptly named, because translated it means "great enormous noise." But now there is little noise, just the sounds of a faint beating in the distance, when on the horizon a broad strip of white, stretching from one river bank to the other appears. The surfers prepare themselves and grasp their boards under their arms in anticipation. The Pororoca thunders up current.
First there was low-tide, which allowed the river to flow more powerfully and press the ocean back. But naturally, the tide came back in and the Atlantic showed how superior and powerful it really is. The river may be strong, but the ocean is more powerful and, in a collision between the two, there can only be one victor. With a colossal crash, a massive wave comes to life out at sea and makes its way towards the mouth of the river. Here the "Pororoca" gains force and power, even though the river is many kilometers wide and pushes itself through with a torrent force and pulls upstream, reaching a height of up to four meters. Only after about 13 kilometers does the wave finally slow and calm down, leaving only a path of destruction in its wake. The people who live on the banks of the river experience this destruction twice daily during the time of the full moon. The wave washes large trees, pieces of garbage and panicking animals, who were previously a hazard to the people, away in its wake.
Our plan is to have the stars of the waves pulled into the wave or along side it, by either a Jet-Ski or with one of three small boats fitted with outboard motors. The idea is then to have the Australian Ross Clarke-Jones, as well as the Brazilians Eraldo Gueiros, Carlos Burle and Picuruta Salazar, get on their boards and glide onto the wave and allow the wave to take them inland—that is if everything works out!
