NvP: “It was the 1990s and I recall driving in an old school Mercedes with my dad while listening to cassette tapes. He was playing The Beach Boys at the time and I clearly remember embracing the whole vibe, the warm feeling it gave me. `What’s surfing, it sounds really cool? ́ I asked.  ́Surfing is when you ride waves` my father told me. I must have been about four years old at that time and from that moment on, I knew I wanted to surf.

Fast forward a couple of years and we have moved to the coast of Portugal and that’s when I first tried board riding. It was an instant love and passion. The whole energy, the community and the setting.

Surfing, whether big or small waves, makes you connect with nature on such a deep level, it’s almost spiritual. You are moving with the force of the elements that has traveled for thousands of miles far out at sea. Then, when it reaches the shoreline, it breaks into a massive wave - and the more immense the waves, the more irresistible it becomes. I call waves “the children of a storm”.

Just as with all the places you might visit around the world during your life, Nazaré has a characteristic scent that lingers in your memory. It’s a raw landscape there with the rock formations, the mix of the air, the wind and the wild seascape of the Atlantic Ocean breaking. It’s incredible.”

The Fragrance Journey is based on a conversation with Nic Von Rupp, who is renowned for pushing boundaries of what is considered possible in big wave surfing.