Giant Wave Surfers

Why do they do it? Ask one of the ‘giant wave’ surfers and they’ll say ‘It’s the buzz.
It’s the adrenaline. There’s nothing like it.’ Who are these giant wave surfers?
Men and women who travel the world in search of the biggest waves.

One of them is 34-year-old Andrew Cotton, from Devon in England.
People believe he may have broken the world record for riding the highest wave ever on the 2n of February, 2014.
His monster wave was 24.3 metres high!
Andrew was checking weather reports at home the day before when he heard about a big storm.
The storm was approaching western Europe and Andrew knew what to do.
He dropped everything and flew to Nazaré in Portugal.
The Praia de Norte is a very special beach with a deep canyon which creates huge waves.

The next day, Andrew was with a team of three other surfers.
They were waiting in the water for an hour before they saw the giant wave.
One of the team pulled Andrew up onto the wave with a jet ski.

Andrew’s ride lasted no more than ten seconds at an estimated speed of over 60 kilometres an hour.
He fell as the giant wave crashed down on top of him, and went deep underwater. The wave was pulling him back,
but Andrew was wearing a special float vest under his wetsuit and pulled its cord.
The vest inflated and pulled him back to the surface. A video camera team live-streamed the world record attempt.
A global audience of over 300,000 watched as Andrew surfed the biggest wave in the world.

Andrew Cotton and Bethany Hamilton have a lot in common. He is a part-time professional surfer,
and Bethany turned professional in 2007. Bethany started surfing when she was four,
and won her first championship when she was eight.
Her most recent win was a major women’s surfing competition in Hawaii in March 2014.
Andrew’s father bought him his first board when he was eight, and he hasn’t stopped surfing since.
You can be sure of one thing about both of them – it’s not about championships or records,
it’s about the moment, the experience.