Andrew Cotton breaks his back in Nazare wipeout - video
Overnight, a huge swell hit Nazare with locals winds, forecast to be troublesome, fortunately cooperating. A talented cew had assembled in Portugal including Andrew Cotton, Engligh plumber, lifeguard, and XXL surfer.
Fading late on a big left, Cotty came around the corner only to wear the lip on the head. The footage makes for grim viewing, the outcome equally so with news Cotty broke his back.
From his IG account:
"What can I say, I got a little excited this morning and ending up having possibly the worst wipeout impact-wise of my life. Thank you to all the lifeguards and crew on the beach who helped stabilise me and do a great spinal recovery, I can’t name everyone but you all did your bit to get me safely to the hospital . Obviously huge shout out to the team. I have broken my back but I’ve been really lucky, I’m already looking forward and focusing my energy to get fit and back out there on some more big rollers!"
See more footage from the day here.
Comments
He sounds incredibly chipper after that horrorshow.
Fuck..
How’s the distance he got bounced! Fucken Jesus.
He travelled further in the air than any wave I’ve ridden in the last month
How's the bounce?
From what I can gather that kind of situation, not being able to get enough speed to outrun an unforeseen section, could limit performance big wave riding at Nazare.
At most other XXL waves, say Jaws or Mavs, the waves are steep from takeoff to the channel, surfers can usually rely on bursts of speed to straighten out and get clear or just react differently to a changing situation.
Nazare, however, has so much sloping trough that there's no way to get more speed once they're on their way. If the wave sections unexpectedly - and Naz does that more than most - then they can be left hopelessly stranded.
Reckon the only way to get around this is advancements in board design, and I can understand why a lot of shapers are paying close attention to what's happening on the water in Portugal.
That video is a horror show. Very strange decision-making with those fade turns. Maybe ties in with the unpredictability you mentioned but still weird not to be gunning for the shoulder at all times.
I reckon the fading is how they're gonna raise the performance bar. So many times we've seen surfers flying out on the shoulder at Nazare, it's only natural that progression will take them closer to the curl, so that means coming from behind the peak or fading to delay the bottom turn.
The flip side, of course, is when it breaks quicker than expected and the surfers get caught short. Hello Cotty!
I spoke to Tim Bonython before this trip. He's seeing some similarities between Nazare now and the North Shore fifty years ago. Not the waves obviously, Nazare doesn't have the options Oahu does, but the fact there's so much room to progress. The surfers are staring into this huge unknown, each session breaks new ground, new design breakthroughs will be made there, and because of this it'll become a proving ground for both board shapers and serious XXXL surfers, just like the N Shore was.
Maybe........personally I think there are much greater performance leaps and room to progress at Jaws/Pe'ahi....and in that field we really have seen new ground being broken. Huge leaps forwards in paddle in big wave surfing. Phenomenal stuff.
Unless I'm missing something I'm not really seeing that happen at Nazare, guys just hanging on for dear life with pretty much straight line surfing.....and I think that is a structural problem. There is only so much you can so at a shifting beachbreak.
Lotta room to move at Jaws in terms of barrel riding, but I reckon the sheer number of big wave surfers turning up at Nazare is testament to where things are heading.
we have actually seen Jaws being paddled and now a couple of tube rides on the smaller waves , but still limited by the speed of the board getting the right line to pull in.
If they were towing it , they would be backdooring the peak and coming out with big carves which will never happen on a paddle board , unless there is another propulsion unit onboard!
I think the Tow boards are getting faster and faster , so a lot of people are making waves , so lets see what happens in the next few years , but to do manoeuvres needs to be clean..Laird has a vision of riding and turning on a foil so as to negate the big bumps....
The other thing you have to consider is how much more dangerous Nazare is than Jaws!
if you wipe out like Andrew , which to me he misread the wave , should have angled much earlier , the consequences are horrific , he is a very lucky man , could have been winded , snapped his back and been killed in any number of ways.
Did you see the 6 guys on the giant SUP get towed in and they all ate shit,playing with death ah the smell of fear and shit,haha!
Gotta agree with FR76 on this one.
I just watched the Towers of Nazare vid you put up and there is only so much you can do on a wave that fattens out so quickly after the peak.
You might get the “tallest” wave ever at nazare on the peak but after that it’s all over
Big wave paddle in tube rides is where it’s at
Don't think anyone has even reached or bettered the wave GMac rode out there.....what? 5,6, 7 years ago?
As for progression, if someone could post a video showing before and after performance leaps I'd love to see it.
Compare that with what Ian Walsh, Albee Layer, Billy Kemper, Kai Lenny,Dorian et al are doing at Jaws now compared to 5 years ago and it's chalk and cheese.
They are paddling into and actually surfing giant Hawaiian surf. Pulling in off the takeoff, turning under the lip, huge bottom turns etc etc..
Jaws is so clearly the pinnacle of big wave surfing right now.
I suppose the performance increase is going to come in speed and maintaining it on such a massive wall of water. If they can start turning off the bottom and increase speed exponentially, then that is a major leap forward. At Jaws it already has the speed you just need to harness it.
Good point mem
Can't blame the surfboard, unless its a backyard dog of a shape. Be doing 60kmh when letting go of the rope?, No speed problem there. He goes straight for too long then fades right?? WTF?? Looses all speed and bottom turns super late into the falling lip. I dare say he kooked it and probably shouldn't even be out there.
Yeah, what was he thinking. I mean presumably Andrew Cotton's never been out in big waves before and doesn't have a clue what he's doing. Or maybe as it turns out it's actually you that doesn't have a clue.
I am never gonna complain about a wipeout again.
Wonder what part the bouyancy vest played in the Backbreak if any ?
Exactly what I was thinking Thermalben! That's absolutely ridiculous...a real 'life flashing before your eyes' moment.
Kinda puts 4-6ft closeout beachies into perspective, eh?
Like they say in the KFC ad "just take my money" but this should come from the XXL mob for biggest wipe-out of the DECADE. That a POO SHOOT on steroids.
As an interesting aside, on an interview on another site he said that he would rarely eject like that and would either pull in (probably not relevant in this case)or ride it out (again no chance of getting far enough ahead) dependent on other variables of course. Guess your kinda fucked on a wave like this eh...
I reckon “I got a little excited” is code for “for a second there I thought I was gunna backdoor a cavern”
Poor bugger....
any physicists out there? wtf is he "bouncing" off? i doubt the buoyancy vest would change things much
maybe the lip hit the front of the board and levered him up?
He's not bouncing off anything. I'd say he was caught in the explosion the lip creates when it hits the water surface at the trough of the wave.
Yeah I've been bounced a couple of times like that, go to dodge lip (read barrel) and then get hit on the perfect spot, being launched out and into the air. You get absolutely smoked, let along with that amount of water coming down on you.
Hahah damn barrel dodgers
The speed he was traveling, he would have just skipped off the surface like a water-skier does, before getting caught up in the explosion created by the lip impact. Cudos to all who go out there, braver than me. Still reckon he regrets the fade though.
jeez would have been hard trying to look behind and over the shoulder on his back hand especially with that vest on and he must of shit himself when he realised he mistimed it.......but hes one lucky punter.
Fade to black
That's actually a really fun sensation when it's not performed on a kilometre or so of wave face.
The broken back wouldnt add much joy either I wouldn't imagine.
To be honest , surviving that is a great storyline for the sequel to the Bruce Willis flick " Unbeakable " .
Where’s Liard & his foil? Not the place to get tangled up with a foil but maybe that’s where the required speed will come from for such a massive, open faced wave. People used to think jumping of a cliff wearing a parachute was sheer madness & now look what’s happening in that realm. Bring on extreme Nazare I say.........
Good comments about pushing the limits...but where's the line between that and getting a little too casual / cocky. His fade seemed a little arrogant to me. Waaaayyy too casual. When I first saw that footage and hadnt realised he'd broken his back I thought "that guys is stalling for the first ever barrel at Nazare...". With so much action out there and size limits being pushed - being the first to get barrelled has surely got to be crossing their minds.
yeah for the barrel , but the wave has to barrel , which Nazare doesn't seem to do , even though the right sometimes could but you ride straight into the rocks !