Teenage Surfer Goes Big, Falls Flat at Nazaré Paddle Session

Jake Smith is on a whirlwind. And I don’t just mean this tumble at Nazaré. His whole life involves moving around from place to place. A Canada-American born in landlocked central Pittsburg, he’s more a citizen of the world. He’s spent formative years with his family in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Bali. The 17-year-old is the eldest of four brothers. But he only started surfing seriously when he was 14 years old.

These days, Smith spends a lot of his time in Hawaii, Indonesia, and Portugal. It’s a nomadic existence, and he absolutely loves it. In an interview with the ELEVATE podcast, Smith explained that he knows how fortunate he is to be in this position as a teenager. How busy is Smith? Take this summary post of 2023, where he caddied for Nic von Rupp during the Eddie, shaped boards with Eric Arakawa, paddled Jaws for the first time, and spent all summer in Indonesia (where he did motorcycle trips to Desert Point and even joined the water safety team for the WSL Krui QS event) then posted up at Nazaré.

Lately, Smith has been on a mission to do Nazaré the hard(er) way: prone and with two hands. Some of the results on his social media are impressive. With the unpredictable and roaming peaks, even on a “small” day, it is essentially the world’s biggest beachbreak. Not a feat most surfers would be keen on, let alone one who has been surfing in earnest for less than five years. Yet Smith gives it an honest crack, dropping into legitimate peaks. But wipeouts are inevitable at this scale, as evidenced in the video above, filmed from the water by Rennan Chaves. But don’t expect Smith to stay down for long.

“I just have this drive in me, where I just want to push it,” Smith said. “I want to do what I love. And I love big wave surfing.”