A biography for Garrett McNamarahasn’t been written yet.
“Riding big waves was my passion.”
“Well, it was - big wave surfing was my job. And I had to accomplish some great feat every year. And we kept finding bigger and bigger waves until there was no wave too big.”
“I used to not care if I died, but once I married and had children and became part of a big surfing community, that changed.”
“I'd always surfed with my ego - I had to get the biggest, best wave - and a lot of it was for survival.”
“Surfing is cleansing, pure and beautiful; it's where I feel most comfortable.”
“It really is never too late, it really is never too early to figure out your goals and dreams and what you love.”
“In Nazare, the ocean is known as a place of death, not of riding waves.”
“It's so amazing to just be in the water, surfing with your friends.”
“The ocean is my church and my playground, and it's where I love to be. It's where I belong.”
“I caught every wave I wanted and I fell in love with big waves at 16 years old. Then it just was bigger and bigger from there.”
“You can go very quickly from heaven and find yourself in hell.”
“The pursuit has just been to find the 100-foot wave.”
“I don't wanna say I'm growing up, but I definitely feel content.”
“My mother married this guy, his name was Darryl. And he was moving us to Hawaii. And he was a musician. He was working with Don Ho's daughter, actually. And then he ended up meeting some girl, left my mom, and me and my mother and brother were stuck in Waialua at Cement City. It was pretty much the armpit of Oahu.”
“If I go to the gym and I put the headphones on, I'm going to go a hundred and ten percent until I leave.”
“I got desensitized by riding so many big waves that I don't really get a rush anymore.”
“It didn't matter if we didn't have new bikes and skateboards and a nice car, and a lot of food in the fridge. We were in the ocean just enjoying life to the fullest.”
“I've probably had the worst wipeouts in surfing, and I've enjoyed every one of them.”
“Nazare is crazy. When you're out in the ocean, and you're a little bit past the wave, outside, it doesn't really look that big. And then, once you get towed into this thing, it is like coming down a mountain, like going over a cliff.”