Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries:
While we've had a bit of a lack-lustre big wave season down south the Northern Hemisphere autumn has opened with a bang and all eyes were on Nazaré, Portugal, last Wednesday. This wave, at the head of an undersea canyon has become the focal point for big wave surfers for one reason: it is the biggest, most accessible wave in the world. This is where the biggest waves are ridden and where the bar will be raised again. This past week's session was as beautiful as always – as captured in this drone footage by Vitamin Dan, but it also pulled us one step closer to the edge.
Trying to find a line on that razor edge, UK surfer Andrew Cotton, paid the price and collected one of the most terrifying bits of footage to come off the cliffs of Praia do Norte. Watch Cotty's wild ride here. Cotty broke his back in the impact, was held underwater and took another wave on the head before his tow partner Hugo Vau was able to get to him. Then they lost the jetski in the turbulence and had to swim to shore. It was heavy. It could have been a lot worse.
A few years ago the hard-charging Garrett McNamara, who lays claim to the biggest wave ever surfed at Nazaré (100ft), suffered a dislocated shoulder after his own horrific wipeout at Mavericks in California. Surfline compiled this film about that one. You'd think it would have dampened his enthusiasm, right? Wrong, he was chasing paddle-in waves at Nazaré on the first swell of the season this September.
So where does it lead? Well, we're at the edge. Big-wave surfing has arrived at a place where freeclimbing, speed-flying and wingsuiting have occupied for quite some time. The line between life and death is thin here, but both have different meanings to those breaking new ground.
See you at the beach ... Derek
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Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries: