譯/陳韋廷
At the market in the ancient fishing village of Nazaré, Portuguese pensioners shopped for their fruit and vegetables. Retired fishermen chatted over coffee. And a record-breaking American surfer sipped on a cucumber and celery smoothie.
在古老的納扎雷漁村的市場上，葡萄牙退休族購賣水果和蔬菜，退休的漁民喝著咖啡聊天，一名破紀錄的美國衝浪手則啜吸著小黃瓜芹菜冰沙。
It was Garrett McNamara, a 51-year-old from Hawaii who until recently held the world record for the highest wave ever surfed. And who, for most of his life, had never visited Europe and had to take some time to find Portugal on a map.
此君是51歲的夏威夷人蓋瑞特．麥克納馬拉，直到不久前仍是衝浪高度世界紀錄的保持人。他一生大部分時間沒到過歐洲，必須花些時間才能在地圖上找到葡萄牙。
"I never envisaged this," said Mr. McNamara, who tended to surf in the Pacific Ocean. "Portugal was never a destination."
喜歡在太平洋衝浪的麥克納馬拉說：「這我可從沒想到過。葡萄牙從來就不是我的目的地。」
For centuries, Nazaré was a traditional seaside town, where fishermen taught their children to avoid the huge waves that crashed against the nearby cliffs.
幾個世紀以來，納扎雷一直是個傳統的濱海小鎮，當地漁民都會教導孩子如何避開會衝擊附近懸崖的巨浪。
But over the past eight years, those same waves have turned the place into an unlikely draw for extreme surfers like Mr. McNamara, their fans and the global companies that sponsor the athletes.
但在過去這8年，同樣的海浪卻使這小鎮對麥克納馬拉這樣的極限衝浪者，他們的粉絲，以及贊助這些運動員的全球性企業，產生了不可思議的吸引力。
Tall as a 10-story building, the waves are caused by a submarine canyon —three miles deep, and 125 miles long — that abruptly ends just before the town's shoreline.
這些浪有10層樓高，是由一條3英里深、125英里長， 綿延至該鎮海岸線前驟然而止的海底峽谷所造成。
When Mr. McNamara first saw the giant walls of water in 2010, "it was like finding the Holy Grail," he said. "I'd found the elusive wave."
麥克納馬拉先生說，2010年第一次看到巨大的水牆時，「就像找到了聖杯，我找到了夢寐以求的浪。」
Up in the town's 17th-century fort, tourists now ogle surfboards in the same rooms where the marine police used to store confiscated fishing nets. Out in the bay, professional drivers are testing new jet-skis yards from where villagers dry fish on the beach. In the port, surfers rent warehouses next to where fishermen unload their catch.
在鎮上17世紀的堡壘裡，遊客們將衝浪板放在海警過去用來存放沒收漁網的房間內。而在海灣內，專業駕駛測試著新的水上摩托車，距海灘上村民曬魚處僅數碼之遙。衝浪者則在港口內緊鄰漁民卸貨處租了倉庫。
"It's a very interesting mixture of history and tradition — and a surfing community," said Maya Gabeira, who holds the record for the biggest wave ever surfed by a woman, achieved at Nazaré last January, and who has had a base in the town since 2015. "We're not the predominant thing here."
今年一月在納扎雷締造女子最高衝浪紀錄、自2015年起就在鎮上有個基地的瑪雅．加貝拉說：「這是歷史、傳統與衝浪界一個非常有趣的混合。我們並不是這裡的主宰。」
The dynamic constitutes a sea change for both the big-wave surfing world, whose members have historically gravitated toward the surf hubs of Hawaii and California, and the 10,000 villagers of Nazaré, who were used to having the place to themselves over the winter.
The story of how it happened depends on who is telling it.
對於成員向來被夏威夷與加州衝浪中心所吸引的巨浪衝浪界，以及習慣在冬天把這地方留給自己的1萬納扎雷村民來說，這種發展都造成了巨大的變化。至於事情是如何發生的，說法就因人而異了。
For Dino Casimiro, a local sports teacher, the tale began in 2002, when he and a group of friends set up a club in 2002 to help popularize water sports among locals, and publicize Nazaré's waves among foreigners.
對於在當地擔任體育老師的迪諾．卡西米羅而言，這個故事始於2002年，當時他跟一群朋友創立了一個俱樂部，向當地人推廣水上運動，並向外國人宣傳納扎雷的海浪。
For Jorge Barroso, the former mayor, the turning point was in 2007, when he first gave Mr. Casimiro permission to hold a water sports competition off the most northerly — and the most deadly — of the town's two beaches.
前市長若澤．巴羅佐表示，轉捩點在2007年，當時他首度允許卡西米羅在鎮上兩個最北、最可能致命的海灘上舉行水上運動比賽。
沒有留言:
張貼留言