//www.youtube.com/embed/hAcj1FeggTc
Hawaiian Kealii Mamala rode a wave at big-wave spot Nazare in Portugal on Sunday that is in contention for the 2015 Billabong XXL Ride of the Year Award. “Kealii has spent the last three months in Nazare and has been a standout, both paddling and towing, all winter,” said videographer Mikey Corker, who filmed the XXL entry above. “He was the man of the match on Sunday and surfed the biggest wave of the day.”
“I think we may have surfed it bigger, but maybe never as this heavy or intense,” U.K. surfer Andrew Cotton told GrindTV.
Cotton surfed three waves before suffering a horrendous wipeout. “I was clipped on a wave and was held down for ages,” he continued. “When I came up, Will Skudin on his ski had just gone past me, and I missed my chance to get out of there. Then another wave broke about 20 yards in front of me.”
There is perhaps no more scary position in surfing than being caught in this situation at the world’s most dangerous beachbreak.
“It was massive, and I was right at the base of the wedge, which was the heaviest part of the breaking wave,” continued Cotton. “It pile drove me to the bottom and hyperextended my arm above my head before rolling me to shore in what was the biggest physical beating of my life. After that, I was done.”
Cotton and Mamala were joined by an international crew that included Will and Cliff Skudin from New York, Sebastian Stuednter from Germany, Tom Butler from England, and local Hugo Vau. Nazare’s most famous ex-pat, Garrett McNamara, had flown back to Hawaii earlier in the week.
While there is some debate about Nazare’s place in the big-wave world, it is a force of nature that keeps a hardcore crew coming back to sample its gruesome delights. “It’s dangerous and it’s giant,” said Cotton. “Look, there are other big waves, and we are now really keen to focus on Hawaii, but Nazare keeps drawing you back. It’s like one of those superhot girlfriends who treat you like sh*t, but you can’t help yourself because you never know what you are going to get. It’s very, very hard to stay away.” The XXL entry below shows why Cotton keeps coming back.
//www.youtube.com/embed/lO0ab_79bQ8
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