The reason he surfs big, the reason he keeps chasing the dream, the reason he doesn’t want to get off the pro surf train just yet. It provides contrast, or maybe it’s the opposite. Why does the biggest wave attract him so much? To understand it, he thinks about what may be the smallest wave he’s ever caught – his first. Setting the biggest wave as a target is just a way to keep me pushing harder.” A unique set of natural features means Nazaré in Portugal is home to the biggest waves on earth Often, all I want is to be on every single big swell, catching waves and enjoying my time in the ocean Andrew Cotton Big wave surfer “Often, all I want is to be on every single big swell, catching waves and enjoying my time in the ocean. “I’m still coming to terms with this,” he admits. The end goal is always to surf the biggest wave ever. Andrew describes it as like being on a runaway train – and even now he’s not sure that he’s ready to get off the train yet. There are still times when I am content just enjoying smaller waves, and then I almost feel like I don’t need anything else.” But the draw of going big is too strong. “But these weren’t really questions I asked myself. “I get asked why and how a lot,” he says. It took him seven months to recover, and even longer for him to be able to embark on a big wave adventure experience once again. In 2017, he sustained a smashed vertebra. Thank God I didn't give up.’ That is when I’m at my happiest.” We have lift off: Andrew has recently begun riding a foilboard All swell that ends well And then you push past it, and you come out on the other side thinking ‘Thank God, I did it. The point where you’re ready to say, ‘I’m not gonna do it’, and the pressure and anxiety are almost at breaking point. Then there are the times when you tussle internal demons, face your fears, and go for it anyway.” He adds: “I think my happiest moments have been when I get to a point where I just want to pull the pin. Instead listen to the voice inside and make a judgement. “Forget the training and conditioning and years of experience for a moment. “So much of big wave surfing is about instinct,” says Andrew. By following his instincts, he’d discovered a corner of the surfing world where he could finally immerse himself completely. Andrew wonders, too, if that was the day that fully set him on his current path. It changed the way the world viewed Nazaré, helping thrust big wave surfing into the attention of the global media. Andrew operated his jet-ski support that day (surfers use jet skis to catch the big wave as they are considered too big to hand paddle into). It was here, in Nazaré in 2012, that McNamara set the then record for surfing the world’s biggest wave – 23.77m. He knew then that this needed to be his life. Seeking out the next surfing adventure in a Porsche Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo A new wave heroĪndrew had been there for just three days when he encountered his first big wave adventure experience. The trip would end up shaping Andrew’s future. They’d never met, but he was coming to Europe to try and surf this fabled place he’d heard of called Nazaré and needed some support, hence the call to Andrew. That’s when he got a call from Garrett McNamara, one of the best-known professional big wave surfers in the world. The man brought up on the rugged coast of North Devon in England reached a point in his life where he needed an out, a way to follow his passion and simply surf. Back in 2010, Andrew’s life also revolved around water, but in a very different way – working as a plumber back home in the UK. His life story, certainly his professional surfing career, is entwined with the rebirth of this old Portuguese fishing village – located about an hour and a half north of Lisbon – as a destination for big wave surfing. But it was the mighty scale of the waves that first drew him to Nazaré. Professional big wave surfer, Andrew Cotton, grew up surfing on the beaches of south-west EnglandĪt the tail end of the summer, Andrew Cotton gazed out across an altogether calmer scene. At the culmination of this trench is Praia do Norte (North Beach), home to a spectacular mediaeval fort and a big wave adventure experience like no other – the largest waves ever surfed on earth. The mind-boggling huge winter waves you see here are the product of an underwater canyon extending 160 miles into the Atlantic, in places up to three miles deep, which gives the waves an almost unimpeded run as they tumble and rumble towards the shore. It would be hard to design a location better suited to big wave surfing than Nazaré in Portugal. In conversation with Sidetracked magazine for Porsche, surfer Andrew Cotton tells us what it takes to ride the world’s largest waves, fighting back from serious injury and finding peace and happiness on the ocean Skyscrapers of the surf A Porsche adventure with big wave surfer Andrew Cotton Meet the man who tames the ocean’s monsters
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