Briton Andrew Cotton received a fracture of the spine during the “storming” of the 15-meter “water wall” off the coast of Portugal.
The incident occurred on November 8, in Nazaré Canyon, where a demonstration took place in honor of the return to surfing of Garrett McNamara, who in 2011 saddled a wave 23.77 meters high. Many believe that since then his record has not been beaten, although representatives of Cotton in early February 2014 said that the wave succumbed to 24.3 meters, all in the same Nazar.
“I jumped off the board, although I rarely do it. Perhaps I laid a steeper trajectory than I should have. I had to fall more than once, but this time I felt a strange sense of weightlessness, which before I was unfamiliar. And then I plunged into the world of pain, “said the 36-year-old Cotton who works as a plumber in North Devon.
On the shots you can see how a giant wave covered the athlete, and then threw it out of his “womb.” The rescuers on duty came to the rescue of the victim. Already in the hospital it became clear that Andrew had 12 vertebrae damaged.
“With impatience I wait and I save strength to quickly return and conquer even higher waves,” he wrote.
