According to surfer Nic von Rupp, big waves are like mountains. They have peaks. He is explaining how the wave at Nazaré in Portugal gets to be up to 100 feet tall, pointing from the vantage point of the 16th-century fort that sits on top of the cliff above the water.
‘There’s a 140-mile canyon that stretches out to sea,’ he explains, ‘and it’s really deep. Imagine the Grand Canyon in the States, but underwater.’ He describes how the water rushes through this valley, which is up to 16,000 feet deep, to the point where it narrows at Nazaré and is pushed out and up into a colossal peak, creating one of the world’s biggest known waves.
Von Rupp has surfed this terrifying phenomenon, the largest wave tackled by surfers, but he is convinced that there are others out there to be discovered. ‘What if there are waves in Greenland? What if there are waves in the Arctic? There have to be these waves… So, we created this project called Mountains of the Sea to go find them.’
Mountains of the Sea is also the name of his team that surfs in competition at Nazaré. Together with his teammate Clement Roseyro, who’s from Biarritz, von Rupp, himself from Sintra in Portugal, took the Best Team Performance prize at the 2025 Tudor Nazaré Big Wave Challenge. Tudor watches, which sponsors the event, is also now the sponsor of Mountains of the Sea, seeing in von Rupp’s mission to scope out new big waves.
As part of his kit, von Rupp will take his trusty Tudor Pelagos dive watch, which he wears every day in and out of the water. Water resistant to 1,000m, the Pelagos Ultra is made to withstand extreme conditions, and von Rupp will be putting it to the test. ‘We’re looking for uncharted locations, so we’re going to Greenland,’ he explains. ‘No one has ever surfed in Greenland because it’s so remote. We’re taking a boat. We’re sailing down there… We’re hiring local guides and hunters, so we’re going to be self-sustainable in the hope of exploring a new coastline and finding the next big, big wave.’
He’s excited about the challenge. ‘I’ve been doing this for so long, and I’ve been doing the same stuff over and over again, which is great. I love it. But that feeling of going into the unknown, to a place that has never been surfed before, regardless of whether you find the biggest wave ever or not… just the feeling of stepping outside of your comfort zone, it’s like taking the first steps again as a surfer. It’s like starting all over again.’
Tudor Pelagos Ultra in titanium, waterproof to 1,000 metres, £5,260; tudorwatch.com
Peter Howarth has been the style director of British GQ and the editor of Arena, British Esquire and Man About Town. He is the co-founder and CEO of London creative agency SHOW and managing director of Secret Trips
