Nazaré, Garrett McNamara, and the Art of Packing Well

I came to Nazaré for the cliffs and clichés, expecting postcard views and maybe a few polite conversations about surf. Instead, I found myself three days deep in culture, gear talk, and sea air—courtesy of Thule, who had gathered a small crew to unveil their new Aion surfboard bag. They didn’t just slap a logo on it. They built it with Garrett McNamara, a man who’s stared down mountains of water and lived to redesign the luggage. You can buy chips and a coke, but you can’t buy experience.