Mr Andrew Cotton, the 36-year-old big-wave surfer from Braunton in the UK is a celebrity amongst surfers worldwide.
He holds the world record for the biggest wave ever surfer and this week found another one of those giant wipeouts which brutally sent him flying off his board in this horrendous video.
As a result of the wave that hit him at Praia do Norte in Nazare, Portugal, Mr Cotton suffered a broken back.
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Mr Cotton who works part-time as a plumber described the event that gave him a broken vertebra from his hospital bed.
“I jumped off my board, I very rarely do that. I just hit the eject button and thought, f***, I gotta get out of this. Then a whole world of pain happened.”
“It was perfect conditions. The waves were really big. Nazare can be quite unpredictable. Maybe I took a deeper line than I should've done and got swept away. I'm pretty good at falling off and have had a lot of wipeouts but this time I remember feeling a weird sense of weightlessness I've never felt before which must've been when I was flying through the air. It was the most impact I've ever had.”
His wife, Ms Katie Cotton, was with him in Portugal when they saw the accident (she stood on the beach accompanied by their two children) : “The children and I flew back from there and we're back on English turf. He's out there at the moment, we're waiting to hear how long it will be before he can get him home.”
Ms Cotton has no doubt her husband can’t wait to get back on the board: “I know that all he will be thinking about is when he can get back in the water. Although it's the worst thing that could happen to most people, to him it’s just part of what he does.”
Source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5065249/British-surf-champion-breaks-wipeout-Portugal.html
Insane! How is it he didn't drown?