When you charge, sometimes the consequences catch up with you. I believe it was Bodhi who not-so-eloquently put it: “If you want the ultimate, you’ve got to be willing to pay the ultimate price.” In no pursuit is that dictum more true than big wave surfing.
If you recall, on November 7th we reported that Andrew Cotton broke his back after a cringe-worthy wipeout at Nazaré. Re-watching the footage and seeing the big wave hellman get guillotined going left and literally bounce 10 feet in the air will make you shutter. “I felt the impact, which to be honest is not easy to describe: what immediately followed was a feeling of lightness or floating,” Cotton told us. “Having seen the footage I now know that I was actually floating. So I impacted the water on landing and took the wave on the head. Soon after that is when the pain kicked in and I knew something was wrong.”
That wave will unquestionably go down in history. But many more waves were ridden that day. Filmmaker Jamie Hancock was on hand and put together this beautiful little vignette. Here’s what he had to say: “In November 2017 I flew over to Portugal from the UK with huge waves inbound for Nazaré. In the morning of the big swell, Andrew [Cotton] had a nasty wipeout and broke his back and was rushed to hospital after being rescued by the jet ski team and brought to the shore. I’m not sure who all the surfers are but please tag them and I will add them in the credits.”
Here’s to a speedy recovery, Cotty.
Check out more from Jamie Hancock on Vimeo.
