- January 10, 2016
- in Green Tips
- by marcos
- 800
- 0
You might remember big-wave surfer Garrett McNamara from his epic 2013 ride on what may well have been the largest wave ever surfed — a 100-foot monster off the coast of Nazare in Portugal.
This week, McNamara attempted something similar. It didn’t go as well.
On Thursday, the Massachusetts-born surfer took to Mavericks, the famous surf break near Half Moon Bay, California, and made his way out into one of the biggest waves ever paddle-surfed.
What happened next looks frankly terrifying:
San Francisco surfer Grant Washburn told the San Francisco Chronicle that McNamara “skipped like a stone and flew into the air,” at one point becoming so dramatically airborne that he looked like a man being catapulted off a trampoline.
Surfing website The Inertia described McNamara’s wipeout as both “horrific” and “cartoon-like.”
McNamara dislocated a shoulder in the incident. He was reportedly taken away in an ambulance, but is expected to be OK.
“Shocking,” Washburn called it. “Maybe one of the worst wipeouts ever filmed.”
The massive winter waves at Mavericks can reach up to 60 feet, and explode “with such ferocity that it can be recorded on the Richter scale,” according to organizers of an annual surf contest there.
The competition, Titans of Mavericks, is a one-day, invitation-only event. This year’s contest will be held sometime before the end of March, weather and other conditions permitting.
Don’t worry, you’re not invited.
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