100 Foot Wave (2021) s01e03 Episode Script
Mavericks
My mom's never been to Portugal.
We're really excited to have her here.
Sometimes it's tough to have my mom around, but since Nicole's come into my life, it's been a joyful experience every time I hang out with her and it's been wonderful.
So, I think it's gonna be great.
2011, and my mom wanted to come visit us.
And it was a challenging trip, a very challenging trip.
Why you come over here to Portugal? To see Garrett surfing these awesome waves and look at the country while I have that opportunity to be with him.
Mostly, it's mostly to be with him.
Please get out of there.
To be honest, it would really, really scare me to know that Garrett was surfing huge waves because I know they're deadly.
But because I have my faith in God and Garrett will be on this planet as long as he needs to be here, I'm not worried.
My relationship with my mom is really good, but she's a very strict, born-again Christian.
Tell you, the devil is so smart, he's got everybody believing he doesn't exist.
And that's tricky.
So try not to get into those conversations with her.
That's what I never did with my kids.
They would bang themselves up, but I'd just go ohh.
- Shake it off, right? - That's why there's no fear.
I mean he doesn't have any fear.
I'm grateful for my mother having such a relaxed way of raising me and letting me experience life.
She let me experience everything on my own.
From a very young age, we were free.
All I remember is fun.
My childhood was fun all the time.
If you ask him about his childhood, he'll say it was great.
And if you know anything about his childhood, it's far from great.
It's disturbing.
Check out these monster 100 foot waves off Portugal.
The biggest wave ever surfed as high as 100 feet.
To put that into perspective, that is taller than an eight story building.
Surfers are always looking for the next great thing.
It often breaks those brave or crazy board riders.
Severe wipeouts and waves of mind boggling height What happens here happens nowhere else in the world.
The biggest wave ever surfed.
100 foot wave.
100 FOOT WAVE Chapter III Mavericks My childhood was very unstable and very unconventional.
I've learned to accept my childhood.
I got a really amazing ability to forget and disregard information that comes in my brain.
You know, like a computer, you got the main screen, you got all the hard drives.
Probably got a lot of hard drives back there, full of stuff that I don't even ever access and don't even remember.
Garrett was born in Massachusetts.
His father was a Latin professor at a boarding school.
And his mother was like the house mother for the boarding home.
And they moved to California because his mother had received an inheritance.
So she took the money and she bought this property up in Northern California and started a commune with a bunch of people.
Yeah, we had a weird childhood.
My mom was a little out there.
My dad was a little out there.
The commune in California was a dream.
Bunch of people, bunch of friends.
We grew our own food.
We did everything together, lived off the land sustainably.
And then Malia was ready to just leave.
So she told Lawrence, his dad, and he's like, well, I don't want to go anywhere.
So he said, I'm staying.
She left Liam with my father and took me with her.
We drove a Volkswagen van from San Francisco all the way to British Honduras.
My mom was a free spirit.
That's where she wanted to live and wanted to start a life there.
My mom met this guy.
He was really a jealous, insecure man.
He was really violent.
So then Garrett and his mom escaped like in this rowboat with crocodiles and stuff.
Through the mangroves and the jungle.
They go back to Berkeley, get Liam.
And then Malia decides to join the Christ family.
They say they are the followers of Jesus Christ Lightning Amen, reportedly a former San Diego building contractor.
And while professing non-violence, a fierce vegetarianism, celibacy, and a materialism in love, to talk to them is to invite scathing criticism.
You come with an open heart, you're going to receive nothing but love.
You come with your arrogance, you're gonna get the hell slapped out of you.
They believe their Messiah, Jesus Christ Lightning Amen, has come to smash all material things and all materialists.
My mother was looking for God and she brought us along for the ride.
She found the Christ family up there in Mount Shasta and for some reason she liked what they were saying and had to offer.
We were traveling up to watch the Martians fly out of the top of Mount Shasta.
We got there and they told us to burn everything.
And she burnt whatever we had, all of our clothes, all of our lively possessions.
It was called the Christ family.
So we walked the earth the same way Jesus walked.
It was a pretty crazy journey as a 5-6-7 year old kid.
We were always trying to find Christ Lightning Amen, who was this elusive cult leader.
We had no transportation, so we walked barefoot.
And we would walk and they would chant no sex, no killing, no materialism.
And the people would always yell: "Well, where did the kids come from?" And my mom would always say: "Well, that was before!" And the people would laugh or they would get disgusted.
It was degrading, definitely degrading.
They walked for six months to a year.
They had no shoes.
They would sleep wherever they could sleep.
They ate out of trash cans.
That's how we survived.
Yeah, that's the childhood part that I think messes with me a lot.
You're never really secure.
But as long as I have Nicole, I feel secure.
Put this set on that ski.
- And that one? - This ski.
Hello, CJ! Where are you, man? I'm back here in Hawaii.
You have a nice new warehouse, huh? Yeah, perfect! Come on right over.
I want you on the movie this year, you know? I know, me too.
So we gotta have some Skype dates.
You can keep me on for that.
Our idea for the third year project was Garrett and friends.
Basically, we need to open the door to everybody.
I kept sharing with all my friends that we found this amazing wave and you got to come visit.
You got to come surf with us.
Nobody came.
Sebastian and Tom Butler were the first two guys to bring their own ski and figure everything out.
I was over in Ireland, towing in with Sebastian Steudtner.
We were promised swell in Ireland, but it didn't really live up to what the forecast had said.
And we'd seen images of Garrett and Cotty, like in nice sunshine and huge Nazaré.
No one out.
And we just packed the van, drove down there, check it out.
- First time in Pria De Norte? - The first time, yeah.
What are you expecting for? Well, we went and had a drive yesterday, me and Sebastian, and the beach is crazy.
There's waves coming from everywhere.
And it's like nothing I've ever experienced before.
I grew up in a town called Newquay.
It is a surf mecca for the UK.
2010 was when I got into big wave surfing.
I knew Cotty a little bit.
We would always turn up at the same swells together.
We hung out in Ireland when I started sort of getting into big waves.
He's been British champion and a big name in the competition, on the surfing scene.
I've been running this morning and I feel kind of ready.
As ready as I can be, I think.
I'm going to focus on the lefts.
I'm a goofy foot, so Ride away from that cliff.
Yeah, please.
When we arrived, there was Garrett, Cotty, and that crew.
And that was it.
Them early days, there was hardly anyone around.
The lighthouse wasn't open to the public my first year I got there.
For a long time, it was just left uninhabited, nothing going on with it.
The lighthouse belonged to the Navy.
Nobody went there.
It was always closed.
It was a little bit destroyed and stuff.
When we arrived in 2010, we're like, we've gotta be able to get into this lighthouse so we can shoot from the roof and we can do safety.
It was tough.
But we got the keys.
When we opened that door and went in there, it was eight feet high piled with fishnets.
The whole entire lighthouse.
Went up to the top and then we looked around and went, this place is magnificent.
You can feel the energy from hundreds of years of the waves beating.
I mean, it's just pure magic there.
We've got to get this open.
But our city hall friends, they're like, no, it's not possible, not possible.
Garrett's like, anything's possible.
You just got to talk to the right person.
So we went straight to the Navy and they've worked with us to open the lighthouse.
When we opened it to the public, we took all the kids from the school and just shared the beauty.
It was a really special moment because these children never imagined being able to go into the lighthouse.
Maybe you can tell them history right here.
The people from Nazaré lived and died without going inside the lighthouse.
They opened it for the people to come and see.
It felt good to give back to the people of Nazaré because they've been really good to me.
The best experiences of my life have happened in Nazaré.
And now let's say the big wave is coming.
That year, we invited Martin Stepanek.
He's a world record free diver.
He did this whole survival course with everybody.
And take your peak inhalation and start your dive.
It was our last full session where we were going to do our longest static breath hold in the pool.
Make sure every single muscle is relaxed.
I held my breath for three minutes and 15 seconds.
And breathe.
There's something at the bottom.
In front of all these good friends of ours and great men, will you marry me? It's both of our birthstones.
That afternoon, we had a photo shoot with Mercedes on the beach.
Later that night, I looked down and the rings gone.
I mean like he literally gave it to me five hours ago.
I'm like, fuck.
I have the pictures from the photo shoot.
So I'm looking at like every picture and I can see like, have the ring, don't have the ring.
So my dad and I go down there with like our phone flashlights.
We couldn't find it.
So then I tell Garrett.
He's like, don't even look for it because Mama Nazaré's jealous.
And that ring belongs to her.
If you find it, I'm throwing it back there.
The whole village was on the beach, looking for this ring.
We had like metal detectors, everything.
We never found the ring, but the whole time, Garrett's just sitting there, like "if you find it, I'm literally throwing it back".
Just let me know when you find it, okay? I grew up like in a very serious environment.
I am super responsible.
The most irresponsible thing I've ever done in my entire life is be with Garrett.
We met in Puerto Rico at a charity event.
An hour after talking, he was like, I have to tell you something.
I'm married.
And I said, well, so am I.
I had just gotten married 13 days ago, which isn't cool.
Buit there was nothing we could do about it.
It was like no one existed to us, but each other.
We really both truly left our lives.
For the first three years, we just had our bag of clothes and we just traveled around the world.
There was just like this energy of Garrett of anything's possible.
There's no parameters to life.
It was just this beautiful, just freedom.
Guess what's happening today at 4:30, boys? - What's happening? - I'm getting married.
No way.
At the lighthouse.
This is a busy day for you, Garrett.
His idea was to surf a wave and like surf into a beach and then sort of James Bond style, pull off his wetsuit and be ready in his suit, ready for the wedding.
Surfed all day.
It was 20 foot and glassy.
We had an invite to the ceremony, but the waves were pumping.
So we kind of carried on surfing.
Came in, got ready and went to the lighthouse, set everything up perfect.
And then Nicole came down in this cool little car and her dad was there to walk her in.
They asked me to conduct the ceremony.
It was an amazing moment.
The team was all there.
We were all sharing the same experience.
It was kind of magical.
The energy of that team was We were a family, for sure.
I think it's going to work because she's crazy.
I know it's gonna work.
Since Nicole came on the scene, my brother changed a lot.
He's more connected.
That's how he is now.
That's the new Garrett.
Me and Garrett both love each other a lot.
And we're very happy for each other's successes.
But we weren't the most supportive brothers.
1976, we left the Christ family and my mom said we're moving to Hawaii.
Our mom brought us here, to the north shore of Oahu and we were in a one bedroom apartment.
We had carpet, luckily.
That's what we slept on.
We met a kid in the neighborhood.
It was his birthday.
And he asked his mom to go surfing for his birthday.
His name was Butchy Boy.
Butchy Wong.
And it was right down the road.
Butchy's dad let us take his knee boards out.
And the first few waves we got, we weren't going to do it on our knees.
We stood right up.
It was love.
Our first board was a long board and we cut the middle out of it and fiberglassed it back together so we could have a small board.
We were definitely close when we were young.
In elementary school, I used to get picked on a lot.
And Garrett actually had to come and back me up and fight a few times.
But once Garrett went off to high school, he started having new friends.
We were really mean to Liam when he was young.
He would ditch me and go hang out and I'd be jealous or pissed because they didn't invite me because I was the younger brother.
We got him so mad that he would just rage to catch us and we'd run.
So he wouldn't catch us.
I made some different friends and we'd basically live at friends' houses.
I was 15, we were partying and got arrested.
And I got put in juvenile home.
They called my house and Garrett answered the phone.
And he was partying at our house and he just kinda laughed and hung up the phone when I was in jail.
As a kid, he didn't do nothing to help me.
In 1988, I was a finalist in a surfing competition at Sunset Beach.
And I turned pro.
Back then, if you accept any money, you're automatically a professional surfer.
I won 250 at Sunset, 250 at Pipe, gladly accepted it.
And oh my God, I'm a pro surfer.
We were very competitive with each other.
We'd be out in the water and me and Garrett would kind of butt heads for waves.
I wouldn't go out when he was out.
Just cause he took every wave and I didn't see any point in being out there when the wave was gonna come to me and he was gonna take it.
For those first five, ten years, I made a name for myself and he was kind of in the shadows for some years there.
I've known Garrett McNamara since probably the eighties.
I was the editor of Surfing Magazine back then.
Really, it was his brother who was the loud mouth, obnoxious, really good surfer.
Liam was so focused and so hungry.
He would not back down to anybody.
The gnarliest, heaviest guy on the island could be sitting here and Liam will paddle around him and take his wave.
Yeah, he wasn't my favorite guy in the lineup.
You got guys that are aggressive and they keep paddling.
You're sitting there, you're waiting.
They get a great wave.
You think I'm next and then he paddles right behind you and starts yelling, "I got it".
People kind of looked at me as the Dennis Rodman or John McEnroe of the sport of surfing.
He was always coming and yell at the judges, trying to break the judges stand.
My reputation got pretty bad.
Liam was very full of himself and from what I understand, not a lot of fun to surf with.
But he became very well known.
I did have photos of Liam on my wall when I was a kid.
Gath helmet, visor down.
Either getting tubed at Pipe or doing like weird straight airs.
With the full visor down.
Yeah, that was part of his costume.
He suited up and would go into battle.
I was amazed that he could wear that shield with the tin in it and still pulling the tube and come out.
But he did it quite well.
He was one of the most photographed surfers in the world for about 10 years.
So Liam was the known McNamara brother.
I won the Pipe Master trials three years in a row.
It was challenging to see him do so well and I just got the scraps.
Garrett wasn't that great of a competitor.
I don't think he enjoyed it as much as I did.
Nobody really knew of me.
And if they did, it was, that's Liam's brother.
I think he had a little jealousy and a little animosity.
Slowly Garrett just started charging more and a little bit more.
Then we were like, oh my God, this guy's crazy.
He just quietly surpassed Liam.
You're out there surfing with your brother.
You see him get barreled.
You want to get a better barrel.
You see him do an off the lip.
You want to do a heavier off the lip.
You see him catch a big wave.
You want to catch an even bigger one.
Just so happens, now my brother's finally caught bigger ones than I catch.
My brother Liam pretty much focuses his career on pipeline and Rockies.
Myself, I try to get away from everybody and hide out on the outer reefs and just enjoy giant waves.
Couple of the waves he caught were life-changing moments.
And he had a few of them all within a span of 24 months.
Garrett was able to get the cover of Surfing Magazine twice in a year and became a worldwide game.
So I brought the name up here and then as I started to come down, Garrett brought the name up here.
At one point I was blackballed by a bunch of the surfing industry.
They wouldn't shoot photos of me, wouldn't put me in the magazines.
I was causing havoc, but that's the only thing I knew to do.
And there was a few years there where Garrett kind of didn't want to be my brother.
He didn't want to damage his reputation.
Did that bother you at the time? Yeah, I mean, when your brother doesn't back you up I was in the Pipe Masters one year and I broke my leash, lost my board, and ultimately lost the event.
And I remember specifically telling my wife, my brother wasn't there for me.
I wish my brother was there.
We would go a year and maybe talk two or three times.
It was pretty tough to be around him sometimes.
They love each other, they're brothers, but we don't hang out.
We don't have Christmas together.
We don't We're not close.
From 40 to 45, I struggled to stay in shape to stay in the game.
Maybe about five years ago, I went out and my mind thought I could do it, but my body wouldn't allow me to do it.
And I almost died.
So that's kind of when I gave up.
And I decided to put my family first and realized that I needed to retire.
I don't have any regrets.
In the end.
I was able to make a living as a surfer.
And you look at the numbers of people who were successful in surfing careers.
It's very, very rare.
After losing his surf sponsorship, Cotty decides to return home to England a month early.
Losing my main sponsor, was tough.
We had like a seven year relationship.
I thought it was like a lifetime, you know.
It felt like I'd been dumped by a hot girlfriend.
The way you survive off surfing is getting sponsors to pay you a salary.
Hopefully a three-year contract, usually one year, but potentially 10 year contracts.
And then every year you gotta produce something.
Mommy? Expensive dream, everything.
The jet skis are expensive.
The flights at the last minute to anywhere are expensive.
If you don't have anyone to sponsor you or support you, then who's going to pay for it? I've got a family and a wife and it's like, what should you do, you know? There's loads of action in the Atlantic, all looks red.
That means there's a lot of swell out there.
Someone's already got to be there, right? It's frustrating.
It'd be nice if money's not an object and you can do whatever you want, whenever you want.
But you can't afford to be on every swell.
You just need to be on the right swells.
There's a long interval, so we can get out.
See how you gotta run? January 2013, a big swell popped up.
Cotty couldn't be there.
So we decided to bring Keali'i Mamala, who was Garrett's tow partner when I met him.
Look at this! I wasn't entering the WSL.
So I didn't have to get the biggest wave or the best wave.
I was just going back to have fun.
If it's already peak, then we've got to get whatever's there.
If it's still coming, from 9 'til 12 can't be maybe break.
The high tide is gonna be better.
Even to paddle.
We hired a really good still photographer and he was working under Jorge Leal.
So Jorge Leal put him up on the school where you can get the good picture and he set up his video camera next to him.
We knew at the time all the best places.
None come close to that.
Not even close.
You've got a couple of waves coming on your outside.
They're big, Garrett! The biggest I've seen since I've been here.
Good job, Eyes on the Cliff.
Thank you so much.
Did you see that? Dude, I can't believe this.
I was so proud of that angle and that wave of Garrett.
The photo was the most beautiful photo ever.
Surfer wise, it was not worth even talking about.
The wave didn't really break.
Garrett, being a traditional surfer, like, "that wave did not break".
"Don't you guys dare put anything out there.
It's not a real wave.
" He did not want us to do anything with that wave, but pretend it didn't happen.
So I tell them don't do anything with it.
The photographer sends it straight to Surfer Europe.
They write this big caption.
"Garrett claims to have surfed the hundred foot wave.
" And I see this and I'm just like, what the fuck? Get ready for what seems to be the biggest wave ever surfed as high as 100 feet That tiny dot is Garrett McNamara, dwarfed by probably the biggest wave ever surfed.
The media picked it up and they said it was a hundred feet.
And as Garrett's manager, if they want to call it a hundred feet, I'm not going to stop 'em.
A hundred foot wave, Garrett McNamara.
Fear is not That wave wasn't a hundred feet.
And the whole world thinks I rode a hundred foot wave.
Guy's name is Garrett McNamara, he's 45 years old.
I remember looking on the news.
I just like blown it.
I should have been there.
I just was pretty gutted.
The photo of you on that wave is unbelievable.
How did it feel? What was the ride like? My feet were popping out of the straps.
Really, really similar to snowboarding down a giant mountain.
I was thinking, "gotta make this".
I didn't realize until the very end that I was almost on the rocks.
In three years, we build the North Canyon Project.
Now in the beginning, it was belonging to a few of us.
With that picture, it was basically done.
Finally, the people start to understand the potential of our waves.
Now, Nazaré belongs to the world.
I've done my job.
That was the biggest swell that we caught here.
And that was like the biggest wave of the day.
I was with my team in Brazil.
I saw one interview with Garrett, he told them in that interview Nazaré is the biggest wave in the world.
Let's go there and see.
At that time Maya Gabeira was from my team.
And we had Gordo and Carlos Burle.
It's not a low budget project.
You need jet skis, you have to spend time there, especially back in the time it didn't have much infrastructure.
It felt very exciting to be here with very few surfers.
It was like a diamond in the world.
I couldn't believe people weren't all over this place yet.
Nobody had like a base here.
Nobody was really dedicated to the place.
You know, you had Garrett with three years of experience and a lot of respect for the place.
But us coming in, we didn't really know how to handle the situation.
I was stoked that people came.
But I was really worried.
I surfed with Maya a bunch all over the world.
She was probably the hardest charging women around.
And she trained harder than everybody.
So she was ready.
The thing that really worried me was they didn't come to us for advice.
We were making all the rules with the city hall and with the Navy.
To go out there, you need a ski to tow and a safety ski.
And you need communication with a spotter on the cliff, but we are not responsible when they hit the water.
The first time I saw Nazaré really big was October 28th of 2013.
Saw this one wave, and I just thought, no.
How could it be? Like how can a wave be breaking there, that's the lineup? I went to Jaws.
I went to Mavericks.
I went to the biggest waves in the world, but I never saw nothing like that.
Was like a movie or something, this terror movie.
We heard a lot about the impact of the shore break.
We were used to shore breaks because we come from Brazil.
Brazil, it's a place of shore breaks.
But Nazaré was totally different, was more powerful.
You have all kinds of directions coming in and you have the bank and you have the cliff.
With those elements, you're never on the safety zone in Nazaré.
But I knew that was going to be doable.
They had no idea what they were dealing with.
If they come to me, I would share everything that I'd learned.
They didn't ask one single question.
Not one.
We just wanted to do it.
Because that's the way we've been doing it for so long.
You got to go and learn for yourself.
You got to put time in.
As soon as we got out of the harbor, we went as fast as possible to the peak and started surfing.
Gordo caught a wave with Carlos.
It was a huge wave and he did very well.
And then I got back to the lineup and we met with Maya and Pedro again and everybody wanted to surf.
I said to Maya: "Go with Carlos.
No problem.
And ladies first.
" I drove her for one wave and she didn't let the rope go.
I drove her to another wave and she didn't let the rope go.
And the third wave, same thing.
And then I look at her and said, surf, if you want to surf.
A big set came in.
We were driving towards it.
And I said: "Hey Maya, the left, it's amazing," "And it's yours.
" And she let the rope go.
I remember kind of falling on my back and kind of seeing like the wave covering me.
I popped up and nobody was around to pick me up.
I was on the lighthouse doing safety that day.
And it was just, it was a mess.
They didn't have adequate safety at all.
They had nobody on the cliff telling the driver where to go.
And he went the opposite direction.
I couldn't find her, so I was going around.
And then I started to listen to people whistling and screaming.
So I was like in that foam, then I just took this huge, huge wave on the head.
I blacked out at the impact and my lifejacket popped over my head.
Stayed under for a long, long time.
I regained consciousness underwater.
And when I popped up, I couldn't really breathe anymore.
And he finally came to me.
He comes to pick her up and pretty much runs her over with the ski.
The last sense we lose before dying is hearing.
So I couldn't see, I wasn't there really anymore, but I remember his voice really loudly.
I said: "Just grab the rope a little bit.
" "I'll pull you a little bit closer to the shore.
" My last strength went into like grabbing that rope.
But he's like dragging her underwater and then she passes out and she's just drowning.
Then she vanished.
When she appeared again, thank God she did, I jumped from the jet ski toward her and I grabbed her.
He grabs her.
And he brings her to the beach.
She died down almost here, and he was reanimating her.
I ran to the beach and it's the lifeguard and Carlos.
I remember him looking at me and he's like: "She's dead!" And then all of a sudden this huge set comes and just washes all of us, including her body up the beach.
Paramedics came at that point.
She started to move her hand a little bit and that caught my attention.
And I said, okay, she's moving.
So then they put her in the ambulance.
Meanwhile, Carlos runs back to the beach and goes: "Help me get my ski in!" I can't get involved with my emotions.
I have to think about my training.
I have to follow my protocol and I have to deliver my mission.
I got a team, I'm here to surf the biggest waves of my life with my team.
I'm gonna do that.
So then he gets his jet ski, runs it back to the harbor and goes back out.
And he does get one of the waves of the day.
Was my biggest day I had ever had a chance to surf at Nazaré.
So it was successful, but still we had something that wasn't in our plans.
But that happens when you are surfing big waves.
It was truly a horrible situation.
I saw her unconscious and She's a person I care for a lot, that I admire.
And I have a responsibility for her as well.
I thought about her family, about our surfs together.
These are very dangerous waters, aren't they? So why do surfers take these deadly risks? Well, as a big wave rider, our objective is to be safe.
If you get hit by the wave, after you've been riding it, we call that wiping out.
That's a failed attempt on the school that I went to.
And Maya, she doesn't have the skill to be in these conditions.
And I feel like it's Carlos's responsibility to take care of her, and he's just lucky that she didn't drown.
I mean, he did take care of it.
He saved her and she did survive.
I was very hurt at the time.
I'm an athlete.
I get seriously injured doing my job.
And the first thing that comes out of one of our icon's mouth is "you shouldn't be out there".
As a human on intensive care, I expected to hear, I wish her the best, speedy recovery.
But I think emotions were flying high.
You hate to offend anybody.
But when you see the footage of these wrecks and you hear these injuries, that's a warning sign.
You better be prepared and know what you're getting yourself into when you go into these conditions.
Somebody literally almost died.
Like she was dead.
They brought her back to life.
At that point, you think it's like, why are you doing this? I remember thinking how selfish they are.
If you want to do this, that's fine.
But you shouldn't have a wife and kids.
But I didn't expect anything less to happen.
I'm glad you were prepared for it.
- I'm prepared for it.
- Cause nobody else was.
They're going in the wrong spot and pushing the limit.
It was the third year and that was the worst accident we had seen.
Maya is stable and won't need greater care, but will stay under observation at the Hospital of Santo André, in Leiria.
The Brazilian surfer was among other athletes who attempted to break the record set by McNamara, who surfed the biggest wave in the world at Praia do Norte.
I did kind of feel responsible because I was the one who pretty much brought everybody to Nazaré.
Big wave surfing's dangerous.
And this wave here is more challenging than any wave in the world.
That place can tell you that you're not prepared.
So I think every team start to understand that and copy our system.
A swell was booming down to Portugal with no wind.
No wind for the whole day, which is what I've been waiting for.
I literally just booked the flight and we'll be in the sea like before it gets light.
I was on the brink of reapplying for full-time jobs, going down that road.
And luckily, Katie, we talked about it.
She sort of said, go with your heart and your passion and things work out.
But it was a huge gamble.
With the anticipation, I just wanna get out there.
As a surfer, the session wasn't great.
But the video footage, it just looks nuts.
People were tagging it like "biggest wave ever".
When we're trying to fly home, Tuesday morning, I woke up and it was just like carnage.
And our Instant Index tonight begins with a man who is a plumber, but riding into history.
Look at this.
We go live via Skype to Braunton in Devon.
There he is, he is Andrew Cotton and son.
The media ran with it, which was great for his career.
He was able to quit plumbing.
The wave got entered into the biggest wave category at the Billabong XXL awards.
The XXL Awards is important for a surfer.
I was super happy for him.
I couldn't wait to see him win.
The winner of the 2014 Double XL Biggest Wave award is Gautier Garanx photo by Eric Bellande.
The wave was 62 feet.
I kind of had an inkling that I wouldn't win.
I always had doubt.
This story would have been too perfect, you know.
He didn't win.
It was a bummer.
When we got back in 2015, we really wanted to create something on our own.
So we created the Red Chargers.
It's about the surfers that look for the red blobs on the map and go charge.
The whole goal of the Red Chargers is to put a face to these people on the waves, which is different than what most of the big wave sites do.
You know, the focus is just the wave and you don't even know what the person looks like.
And all of these guys and women have an incredible story.
They've had to overcome a lot to follow their dreams.
Our goal is for all of you to know them as people, not just as A little dot.
It wasn't a contest, it was a free surf.
And it was really to showcase the underdogs.
We filmed all winter.
Try and mark where he is right now.
That's the spot.
Right there, that's the wave.
Pretty big one, Cotty.
The idea was to have a little video about each surfer, really tell their stories.
How'd it go out there? It was fun, yeah.
That's what surfing's about, isn't it? It was super fun.
At that time, Garrett was training hard and just surfing more than he'd ever surfed.
He was on fire.
He got a lot of good waves.
I was at the peak of my career, physically, mentally.
With all my partners, sponsors, friends, we had everything going so well.
Is that your dada? Sick barrel, dad.
And I realized for years, I had put all my energy into Portugal.
And then, once I accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish there Where's your style? Where's your style? I was so ready to surf the world again.
This thing is so beautiful.
This is the one I'm gonna ride at Mavs.
There was a world tour of big wave surfing at that time.
Best big wave spots, and there was going to be a contest at each spot.
How they determine who's invited is what is up for discussion.
Garrett was not on the list for the Mavericks contest.
He calls the director.
He's like, "Hey, I want to be in the contest".
"I've been at Mavericks many times.
I've put my time in there.
" He said, "You gotta be at every swell if you want to be invited to this contest".
He was just on a mission to be at every swell at Mavericks and prove himself.
And this swell popped up.
He was just gonna go for the day.
After being in Nazaré five years, Mavericks was a cakewalk.
I was in a really good place.
I felt super confident.
The forecast was a little sketchy.
Like there was going to be wind, no wind.
So I was one of the only guys that went, so I was so happy.
- Ready, Marco? - Yeah! Let's go.
I paddled out past everybody and sat there.
And boom, set came right to me.
I turn around, I take a couple casual strokes.
Stood up.
And then everything just kind of went wrong.
Oh my God!
We're really excited to have her here.
Sometimes it's tough to have my mom around, but since Nicole's come into my life, it's been a joyful experience every time I hang out with her and it's been wonderful.
So, I think it's gonna be great.
2011, and my mom wanted to come visit us.
And it was a challenging trip, a very challenging trip.
Why you come over here to Portugal? To see Garrett surfing these awesome waves and look at the country while I have that opportunity to be with him.
Mostly, it's mostly to be with him.
Please get out of there.
To be honest, it would really, really scare me to know that Garrett was surfing huge waves because I know they're deadly.
But because I have my faith in God and Garrett will be on this planet as long as he needs to be here, I'm not worried.
My relationship with my mom is really good, but she's a very strict, born-again Christian.
Tell you, the devil is so smart, he's got everybody believing he doesn't exist.
And that's tricky.
So try not to get into those conversations with her.
That's what I never did with my kids.
They would bang themselves up, but I'd just go ohh.
- Shake it off, right? - That's why there's no fear.
I mean he doesn't have any fear.
I'm grateful for my mother having such a relaxed way of raising me and letting me experience life.
She let me experience everything on my own.
From a very young age, we were free.
All I remember is fun.
My childhood was fun all the time.
If you ask him about his childhood, he'll say it was great.
And if you know anything about his childhood, it's far from great.
It's disturbing.
Check out these monster 100 foot waves off Portugal.
The biggest wave ever surfed as high as 100 feet.
To put that into perspective, that is taller than an eight story building.
Surfers are always looking for the next great thing.
It often breaks those brave or crazy board riders.
Severe wipeouts and waves of mind boggling height What happens here happens nowhere else in the world.
The biggest wave ever surfed.
100 foot wave.
100 FOOT WAVE Chapter III Mavericks My childhood was very unstable and very unconventional.
I've learned to accept my childhood.
I got a really amazing ability to forget and disregard information that comes in my brain.
You know, like a computer, you got the main screen, you got all the hard drives.
Probably got a lot of hard drives back there, full of stuff that I don't even ever access and don't even remember.
Garrett was born in Massachusetts.
His father was a Latin professor at a boarding school.
And his mother was like the house mother for the boarding home.
And they moved to California because his mother had received an inheritance.
So she took the money and she bought this property up in Northern California and started a commune with a bunch of people.
Yeah, we had a weird childhood.
My mom was a little out there.
My dad was a little out there.
The commune in California was a dream.
Bunch of people, bunch of friends.
We grew our own food.
We did everything together, lived off the land sustainably.
And then Malia was ready to just leave.
So she told Lawrence, his dad, and he's like, well, I don't want to go anywhere.
So he said, I'm staying.
She left Liam with my father and took me with her.
We drove a Volkswagen van from San Francisco all the way to British Honduras.
My mom was a free spirit.
That's where she wanted to live and wanted to start a life there.
My mom met this guy.
He was really a jealous, insecure man.
He was really violent.
So then Garrett and his mom escaped like in this rowboat with crocodiles and stuff.
Through the mangroves and the jungle.
They go back to Berkeley, get Liam.
And then Malia decides to join the Christ family.
They say they are the followers of Jesus Christ Lightning Amen, reportedly a former San Diego building contractor.
And while professing non-violence, a fierce vegetarianism, celibacy, and a materialism in love, to talk to them is to invite scathing criticism.
You come with an open heart, you're going to receive nothing but love.
You come with your arrogance, you're gonna get the hell slapped out of you.
They believe their Messiah, Jesus Christ Lightning Amen, has come to smash all material things and all materialists.
My mother was looking for God and she brought us along for the ride.
She found the Christ family up there in Mount Shasta and for some reason she liked what they were saying and had to offer.
We were traveling up to watch the Martians fly out of the top of Mount Shasta.
We got there and they told us to burn everything.
And she burnt whatever we had, all of our clothes, all of our lively possessions.
It was called the Christ family.
So we walked the earth the same way Jesus walked.
It was a pretty crazy journey as a 5-6-7 year old kid.
We were always trying to find Christ Lightning Amen, who was this elusive cult leader.
We had no transportation, so we walked barefoot.
And we would walk and they would chant no sex, no killing, no materialism.
And the people would always yell: "Well, where did the kids come from?" And my mom would always say: "Well, that was before!" And the people would laugh or they would get disgusted.
It was degrading, definitely degrading.
They walked for six months to a year.
They had no shoes.
They would sleep wherever they could sleep.
They ate out of trash cans.
That's how we survived.
Yeah, that's the childhood part that I think messes with me a lot.
You're never really secure.
But as long as I have Nicole, I feel secure.
Put this set on that ski.
- And that one? - This ski.
Hello, CJ! Where are you, man? I'm back here in Hawaii.
You have a nice new warehouse, huh? Yeah, perfect! Come on right over.
I want you on the movie this year, you know? I know, me too.
So we gotta have some Skype dates.
You can keep me on for that.
Our idea for the third year project was Garrett and friends.
Basically, we need to open the door to everybody.
I kept sharing with all my friends that we found this amazing wave and you got to come visit.
You got to come surf with us.
Nobody came.
Sebastian and Tom Butler were the first two guys to bring their own ski and figure everything out.
I was over in Ireland, towing in with Sebastian Steudtner.
We were promised swell in Ireland, but it didn't really live up to what the forecast had said.
And we'd seen images of Garrett and Cotty, like in nice sunshine and huge Nazaré.
No one out.
And we just packed the van, drove down there, check it out.
- First time in Pria De Norte? - The first time, yeah.
What are you expecting for? Well, we went and had a drive yesterday, me and Sebastian, and the beach is crazy.
There's waves coming from everywhere.
And it's like nothing I've ever experienced before.
I grew up in a town called Newquay.
It is a surf mecca for the UK.
2010 was when I got into big wave surfing.
I knew Cotty a little bit.
We would always turn up at the same swells together.
We hung out in Ireland when I started sort of getting into big waves.
He's been British champion and a big name in the competition, on the surfing scene.
I've been running this morning and I feel kind of ready.
As ready as I can be, I think.
I'm going to focus on the lefts.
I'm a goofy foot, so Ride away from that cliff.
Yeah, please.
When we arrived, there was Garrett, Cotty, and that crew.
And that was it.
Them early days, there was hardly anyone around.
The lighthouse wasn't open to the public my first year I got there.
For a long time, it was just left uninhabited, nothing going on with it.
The lighthouse belonged to the Navy.
Nobody went there.
It was always closed.
It was a little bit destroyed and stuff.
When we arrived in 2010, we're like, we've gotta be able to get into this lighthouse so we can shoot from the roof and we can do safety.
It was tough.
But we got the keys.
When we opened that door and went in there, it was eight feet high piled with fishnets.
The whole entire lighthouse.
Went up to the top and then we looked around and went, this place is magnificent.
You can feel the energy from hundreds of years of the waves beating.
I mean, it's just pure magic there.
We've got to get this open.
But our city hall friends, they're like, no, it's not possible, not possible.
Garrett's like, anything's possible.
You just got to talk to the right person.
So we went straight to the Navy and they've worked with us to open the lighthouse.
When we opened it to the public, we took all the kids from the school and just shared the beauty.
It was a really special moment because these children never imagined being able to go into the lighthouse.
Maybe you can tell them history right here.
The people from Nazaré lived and died without going inside the lighthouse.
They opened it for the people to come and see.
It felt good to give back to the people of Nazaré because they've been really good to me.
The best experiences of my life have happened in Nazaré.
And now let's say the big wave is coming.
That year, we invited Martin Stepanek.
He's a world record free diver.
He did this whole survival course with everybody.
And take your peak inhalation and start your dive.
It was our last full session where we were going to do our longest static breath hold in the pool.
Make sure every single muscle is relaxed.
I held my breath for three minutes and 15 seconds.
And breathe.
There's something at the bottom.
In front of all these good friends of ours and great men, will you marry me? It's both of our birthstones.
That afternoon, we had a photo shoot with Mercedes on the beach.
Later that night, I looked down and the rings gone.
I mean like he literally gave it to me five hours ago.
I'm like, fuck.
I have the pictures from the photo shoot.
So I'm looking at like every picture and I can see like, have the ring, don't have the ring.
So my dad and I go down there with like our phone flashlights.
We couldn't find it.
So then I tell Garrett.
He's like, don't even look for it because Mama Nazaré's jealous.
And that ring belongs to her.
If you find it, I'm throwing it back there.
The whole village was on the beach, looking for this ring.
We had like metal detectors, everything.
We never found the ring, but the whole time, Garrett's just sitting there, like "if you find it, I'm literally throwing it back".
Just let me know when you find it, okay? I grew up like in a very serious environment.
I am super responsible.
The most irresponsible thing I've ever done in my entire life is be with Garrett.
We met in Puerto Rico at a charity event.
An hour after talking, he was like, I have to tell you something.
I'm married.
And I said, well, so am I.
I had just gotten married 13 days ago, which isn't cool.
Buit there was nothing we could do about it.
It was like no one existed to us, but each other.
We really both truly left our lives.
For the first three years, we just had our bag of clothes and we just traveled around the world.
There was just like this energy of Garrett of anything's possible.
There's no parameters to life.
It was just this beautiful, just freedom.
Guess what's happening today at 4:30, boys? - What's happening? - I'm getting married.
No way.
At the lighthouse.
This is a busy day for you, Garrett.
His idea was to surf a wave and like surf into a beach and then sort of James Bond style, pull off his wetsuit and be ready in his suit, ready for the wedding.
Surfed all day.
It was 20 foot and glassy.
We had an invite to the ceremony, but the waves were pumping.
So we kind of carried on surfing.
Came in, got ready and went to the lighthouse, set everything up perfect.
And then Nicole came down in this cool little car and her dad was there to walk her in.
They asked me to conduct the ceremony.
It was an amazing moment.
The team was all there.
We were all sharing the same experience.
It was kind of magical.
The energy of that team was We were a family, for sure.
I think it's going to work because she's crazy.
I know it's gonna work.
Since Nicole came on the scene, my brother changed a lot.
He's more connected.
That's how he is now.
That's the new Garrett.
Me and Garrett both love each other a lot.
And we're very happy for each other's successes.
But we weren't the most supportive brothers.
1976, we left the Christ family and my mom said we're moving to Hawaii.
Our mom brought us here, to the north shore of Oahu and we were in a one bedroom apartment.
We had carpet, luckily.
That's what we slept on.
We met a kid in the neighborhood.
It was his birthday.
And he asked his mom to go surfing for his birthday.
His name was Butchy Boy.
Butchy Wong.
And it was right down the road.
Butchy's dad let us take his knee boards out.
And the first few waves we got, we weren't going to do it on our knees.
We stood right up.
It was love.
Our first board was a long board and we cut the middle out of it and fiberglassed it back together so we could have a small board.
We were definitely close when we were young.
In elementary school, I used to get picked on a lot.
And Garrett actually had to come and back me up and fight a few times.
But once Garrett went off to high school, he started having new friends.
We were really mean to Liam when he was young.
He would ditch me and go hang out and I'd be jealous or pissed because they didn't invite me because I was the younger brother.
We got him so mad that he would just rage to catch us and we'd run.
So he wouldn't catch us.
I made some different friends and we'd basically live at friends' houses.
I was 15, we were partying and got arrested.
And I got put in juvenile home.
They called my house and Garrett answered the phone.
And he was partying at our house and he just kinda laughed and hung up the phone when I was in jail.
As a kid, he didn't do nothing to help me.
In 1988, I was a finalist in a surfing competition at Sunset Beach.
And I turned pro.
Back then, if you accept any money, you're automatically a professional surfer.
I won 250 at Sunset, 250 at Pipe, gladly accepted it.
And oh my God, I'm a pro surfer.
We were very competitive with each other.
We'd be out in the water and me and Garrett would kind of butt heads for waves.
I wouldn't go out when he was out.
Just cause he took every wave and I didn't see any point in being out there when the wave was gonna come to me and he was gonna take it.
For those first five, ten years, I made a name for myself and he was kind of in the shadows for some years there.
I've known Garrett McNamara since probably the eighties.
I was the editor of Surfing Magazine back then.
Really, it was his brother who was the loud mouth, obnoxious, really good surfer.
Liam was so focused and so hungry.
He would not back down to anybody.
The gnarliest, heaviest guy on the island could be sitting here and Liam will paddle around him and take his wave.
Yeah, he wasn't my favorite guy in the lineup.
You got guys that are aggressive and they keep paddling.
You're sitting there, you're waiting.
They get a great wave.
You think I'm next and then he paddles right behind you and starts yelling, "I got it".
People kind of looked at me as the Dennis Rodman or John McEnroe of the sport of surfing.
He was always coming and yell at the judges, trying to break the judges stand.
My reputation got pretty bad.
Liam was very full of himself and from what I understand, not a lot of fun to surf with.
But he became very well known.
I did have photos of Liam on my wall when I was a kid.
Gath helmet, visor down.
Either getting tubed at Pipe or doing like weird straight airs.
With the full visor down.
Yeah, that was part of his costume.
He suited up and would go into battle.
I was amazed that he could wear that shield with the tin in it and still pulling the tube and come out.
But he did it quite well.
He was one of the most photographed surfers in the world for about 10 years.
So Liam was the known McNamara brother.
I won the Pipe Master trials three years in a row.
It was challenging to see him do so well and I just got the scraps.
Garrett wasn't that great of a competitor.
I don't think he enjoyed it as much as I did.
Nobody really knew of me.
And if they did, it was, that's Liam's brother.
I think he had a little jealousy and a little animosity.
Slowly Garrett just started charging more and a little bit more.
Then we were like, oh my God, this guy's crazy.
He just quietly surpassed Liam.
You're out there surfing with your brother.
You see him get barreled.
You want to get a better barrel.
You see him do an off the lip.
You want to do a heavier off the lip.
You see him catch a big wave.
You want to catch an even bigger one.
Just so happens, now my brother's finally caught bigger ones than I catch.
My brother Liam pretty much focuses his career on pipeline and Rockies.
Myself, I try to get away from everybody and hide out on the outer reefs and just enjoy giant waves.
Couple of the waves he caught were life-changing moments.
And he had a few of them all within a span of 24 months.
Garrett was able to get the cover of Surfing Magazine twice in a year and became a worldwide game.
So I brought the name up here and then as I started to come down, Garrett brought the name up here.
At one point I was blackballed by a bunch of the surfing industry.
They wouldn't shoot photos of me, wouldn't put me in the magazines.
I was causing havoc, but that's the only thing I knew to do.
And there was a few years there where Garrett kind of didn't want to be my brother.
He didn't want to damage his reputation.
Did that bother you at the time? Yeah, I mean, when your brother doesn't back you up I was in the Pipe Masters one year and I broke my leash, lost my board, and ultimately lost the event.
And I remember specifically telling my wife, my brother wasn't there for me.
I wish my brother was there.
We would go a year and maybe talk two or three times.
It was pretty tough to be around him sometimes.
They love each other, they're brothers, but we don't hang out.
We don't have Christmas together.
We don't We're not close.
From 40 to 45, I struggled to stay in shape to stay in the game.
Maybe about five years ago, I went out and my mind thought I could do it, but my body wouldn't allow me to do it.
And I almost died.
So that's kind of when I gave up.
And I decided to put my family first and realized that I needed to retire.
I don't have any regrets.
In the end.
I was able to make a living as a surfer.
And you look at the numbers of people who were successful in surfing careers.
It's very, very rare.
After losing his surf sponsorship, Cotty decides to return home to England a month early.
Losing my main sponsor, was tough.
We had like a seven year relationship.
I thought it was like a lifetime, you know.
It felt like I'd been dumped by a hot girlfriend.
The way you survive off surfing is getting sponsors to pay you a salary.
Hopefully a three-year contract, usually one year, but potentially 10 year contracts.
And then every year you gotta produce something.
Mommy? Expensive dream, everything.
The jet skis are expensive.
The flights at the last minute to anywhere are expensive.
If you don't have anyone to sponsor you or support you, then who's going to pay for it? I've got a family and a wife and it's like, what should you do, you know? There's loads of action in the Atlantic, all looks red.
That means there's a lot of swell out there.
Someone's already got to be there, right? It's frustrating.
It'd be nice if money's not an object and you can do whatever you want, whenever you want.
But you can't afford to be on every swell.
You just need to be on the right swells.
There's a long interval, so we can get out.
See how you gotta run? January 2013, a big swell popped up.
Cotty couldn't be there.
So we decided to bring Keali'i Mamala, who was Garrett's tow partner when I met him.
Look at this! I wasn't entering the WSL.
So I didn't have to get the biggest wave or the best wave.
I was just going back to have fun.
If it's already peak, then we've got to get whatever's there.
If it's still coming, from 9 'til 12 can't be maybe break.
The high tide is gonna be better.
Even to paddle.
We hired a really good still photographer and he was working under Jorge Leal.
So Jorge Leal put him up on the school where you can get the good picture and he set up his video camera next to him.
We knew at the time all the best places.
None come close to that.
Not even close.
You've got a couple of waves coming on your outside.
They're big, Garrett! The biggest I've seen since I've been here.
Good job, Eyes on the Cliff.
Thank you so much.
Did you see that? Dude, I can't believe this.
I was so proud of that angle and that wave of Garrett.
The photo was the most beautiful photo ever.
Surfer wise, it was not worth even talking about.
The wave didn't really break.
Garrett, being a traditional surfer, like, "that wave did not break".
"Don't you guys dare put anything out there.
It's not a real wave.
" He did not want us to do anything with that wave, but pretend it didn't happen.
So I tell them don't do anything with it.
The photographer sends it straight to Surfer Europe.
They write this big caption.
"Garrett claims to have surfed the hundred foot wave.
" And I see this and I'm just like, what the fuck? Get ready for what seems to be the biggest wave ever surfed as high as 100 feet That tiny dot is Garrett McNamara, dwarfed by probably the biggest wave ever surfed.
The media picked it up and they said it was a hundred feet.
And as Garrett's manager, if they want to call it a hundred feet, I'm not going to stop 'em.
A hundred foot wave, Garrett McNamara.
Fear is not That wave wasn't a hundred feet.
And the whole world thinks I rode a hundred foot wave.
Guy's name is Garrett McNamara, he's 45 years old.
I remember looking on the news.
I just like blown it.
I should have been there.
I just was pretty gutted.
The photo of you on that wave is unbelievable.
How did it feel? What was the ride like? My feet were popping out of the straps.
Really, really similar to snowboarding down a giant mountain.
I was thinking, "gotta make this".
I didn't realize until the very end that I was almost on the rocks.
In three years, we build the North Canyon Project.
Now in the beginning, it was belonging to a few of us.
With that picture, it was basically done.
Finally, the people start to understand the potential of our waves.
Now, Nazaré belongs to the world.
I've done my job.
That was the biggest swell that we caught here.
And that was like the biggest wave of the day.
I was with my team in Brazil.
I saw one interview with Garrett, he told them in that interview Nazaré is the biggest wave in the world.
Let's go there and see.
At that time Maya Gabeira was from my team.
And we had Gordo and Carlos Burle.
It's not a low budget project.
You need jet skis, you have to spend time there, especially back in the time it didn't have much infrastructure.
It felt very exciting to be here with very few surfers.
It was like a diamond in the world.
I couldn't believe people weren't all over this place yet.
Nobody had like a base here.
Nobody was really dedicated to the place.
You know, you had Garrett with three years of experience and a lot of respect for the place.
But us coming in, we didn't really know how to handle the situation.
I was stoked that people came.
But I was really worried.
I surfed with Maya a bunch all over the world.
She was probably the hardest charging women around.
And she trained harder than everybody.
So she was ready.
The thing that really worried me was they didn't come to us for advice.
We were making all the rules with the city hall and with the Navy.
To go out there, you need a ski to tow and a safety ski.
And you need communication with a spotter on the cliff, but we are not responsible when they hit the water.
The first time I saw Nazaré really big was October 28th of 2013.
Saw this one wave, and I just thought, no.
How could it be? Like how can a wave be breaking there, that's the lineup? I went to Jaws.
I went to Mavericks.
I went to the biggest waves in the world, but I never saw nothing like that.
Was like a movie or something, this terror movie.
We heard a lot about the impact of the shore break.
We were used to shore breaks because we come from Brazil.
Brazil, it's a place of shore breaks.
But Nazaré was totally different, was more powerful.
You have all kinds of directions coming in and you have the bank and you have the cliff.
With those elements, you're never on the safety zone in Nazaré.
But I knew that was going to be doable.
They had no idea what they were dealing with.
If they come to me, I would share everything that I'd learned.
They didn't ask one single question.
Not one.
We just wanted to do it.
Because that's the way we've been doing it for so long.
You got to go and learn for yourself.
You got to put time in.
As soon as we got out of the harbor, we went as fast as possible to the peak and started surfing.
Gordo caught a wave with Carlos.
It was a huge wave and he did very well.
And then I got back to the lineup and we met with Maya and Pedro again and everybody wanted to surf.
I said to Maya: "Go with Carlos.
No problem.
And ladies first.
" I drove her for one wave and she didn't let the rope go.
I drove her to another wave and she didn't let the rope go.
And the third wave, same thing.
And then I look at her and said, surf, if you want to surf.
A big set came in.
We were driving towards it.
And I said: "Hey Maya, the left, it's amazing," "And it's yours.
" And she let the rope go.
I remember kind of falling on my back and kind of seeing like the wave covering me.
I popped up and nobody was around to pick me up.
I was on the lighthouse doing safety that day.
And it was just, it was a mess.
They didn't have adequate safety at all.
They had nobody on the cliff telling the driver where to go.
And he went the opposite direction.
I couldn't find her, so I was going around.
And then I started to listen to people whistling and screaming.
So I was like in that foam, then I just took this huge, huge wave on the head.
I blacked out at the impact and my lifejacket popped over my head.
Stayed under for a long, long time.
I regained consciousness underwater.
And when I popped up, I couldn't really breathe anymore.
And he finally came to me.
He comes to pick her up and pretty much runs her over with the ski.
The last sense we lose before dying is hearing.
So I couldn't see, I wasn't there really anymore, but I remember his voice really loudly.
I said: "Just grab the rope a little bit.
" "I'll pull you a little bit closer to the shore.
" My last strength went into like grabbing that rope.
But he's like dragging her underwater and then she passes out and she's just drowning.
Then she vanished.
When she appeared again, thank God she did, I jumped from the jet ski toward her and I grabbed her.
He grabs her.
And he brings her to the beach.
She died down almost here, and he was reanimating her.
I ran to the beach and it's the lifeguard and Carlos.
I remember him looking at me and he's like: "She's dead!" And then all of a sudden this huge set comes and just washes all of us, including her body up the beach.
Paramedics came at that point.
She started to move her hand a little bit and that caught my attention.
And I said, okay, she's moving.
So then they put her in the ambulance.
Meanwhile, Carlos runs back to the beach and goes: "Help me get my ski in!" I can't get involved with my emotions.
I have to think about my training.
I have to follow my protocol and I have to deliver my mission.
I got a team, I'm here to surf the biggest waves of my life with my team.
I'm gonna do that.
So then he gets his jet ski, runs it back to the harbor and goes back out.
And he does get one of the waves of the day.
Was my biggest day I had ever had a chance to surf at Nazaré.
So it was successful, but still we had something that wasn't in our plans.
But that happens when you are surfing big waves.
It was truly a horrible situation.
I saw her unconscious and She's a person I care for a lot, that I admire.
And I have a responsibility for her as well.
I thought about her family, about our surfs together.
These are very dangerous waters, aren't they? So why do surfers take these deadly risks? Well, as a big wave rider, our objective is to be safe.
If you get hit by the wave, after you've been riding it, we call that wiping out.
That's a failed attempt on the school that I went to.
And Maya, she doesn't have the skill to be in these conditions.
And I feel like it's Carlos's responsibility to take care of her, and he's just lucky that she didn't drown.
I mean, he did take care of it.
He saved her and she did survive.
I was very hurt at the time.
I'm an athlete.
I get seriously injured doing my job.
And the first thing that comes out of one of our icon's mouth is "you shouldn't be out there".
As a human on intensive care, I expected to hear, I wish her the best, speedy recovery.
But I think emotions were flying high.
You hate to offend anybody.
But when you see the footage of these wrecks and you hear these injuries, that's a warning sign.
You better be prepared and know what you're getting yourself into when you go into these conditions.
Somebody literally almost died.
Like she was dead.
They brought her back to life.
At that point, you think it's like, why are you doing this? I remember thinking how selfish they are.
If you want to do this, that's fine.
But you shouldn't have a wife and kids.
But I didn't expect anything less to happen.
I'm glad you were prepared for it.
- I'm prepared for it.
- Cause nobody else was.
They're going in the wrong spot and pushing the limit.
It was the third year and that was the worst accident we had seen.
Maya is stable and won't need greater care, but will stay under observation at the Hospital of Santo André, in Leiria.
The Brazilian surfer was among other athletes who attempted to break the record set by McNamara, who surfed the biggest wave in the world at Praia do Norte.
I did kind of feel responsible because I was the one who pretty much brought everybody to Nazaré.
Big wave surfing's dangerous.
And this wave here is more challenging than any wave in the world.
That place can tell you that you're not prepared.
So I think every team start to understand that and copy our system.
A swell was booming down to Portugal with no wind.
No wind for the whole day, which is what I've been waiting for.
I literally just booked the flight and we'll be in the sea like before it gets light.
I was on the brink of reapplying for full-time jobs, going down that road.
And luckily, Katie, we talked about it.
She sort of said, go with your heart and your passion and things work out.
But it was a huge gamble.
With the anticipation, I just wanna get out there.
As a surfer, the session wasn't great.
But the video footage, it just looks nuts.
People were tagging it like "biggest wave ever".
When we're trying to fly home, Tuesday morning, I woke up and it was just like carnage.
And our Instant Index tonight begins with a man who is a plumber, but riding into history.
Look at this.
We go live via Skype to Braunton in Devon.
There he is, he is Andrew Cotton and son.
The media ran with it, which was great for his career.
He was able to quit plumbing.
The wave got entered into the biggest wave category at the Billabong XXL awards.
The XXL Awards is important for a surfer.
I was super happy for him.
I couldn't wait to see him win.
The winner of the 2014 Double XL Biggest Wave award is Gautier Garanx photo by Eric Bellande.
The wave was 62 feet.
I kind of had an inkling that I wouldn't win.
I always had doubt.
This story would have been too perfect, you know.
He didn't win.
It was a bummer.
When we got back in 2015, we really wanted to create something on our own.
So we created the Red Chargers.
It's about the surfers that look for the red blobs on the map and go charge.
The whole goal of the Red Chargers is to put a face to these people on the waves, which is different than what most of the big wave sites do.
You know, the focus is just the wave and you don't even know what the person looks like.
And all of these guys and women have an incredible story.
They've had to overcome a lot to follow their dreams.
Our goal is for all of you to know them as people, not just as A little dot.
It wasn't a contest, it was a free surf.
And it was really to showcase the underdogs.
We filmed all winter.
Try and mark where he is right now.
That's the spot.
Right there, that's the wave.
Pretty big one, Cotty.
The idea was to have a little video about each surfer, really tell their stories.
How'd it go out there? It was fun, yeah.
That's what surfing's about, isn't it? It was super fun.
At that time, Garrett was training hard and just surfing more than he'd ever surfed.
He was on fire.
He got a lot of good waves.
I was at the peak of my career, physically, mentally.
With all my partners, sponsors, friends, we had everything going so well.
Is that your dada? Sick barrel, dad.
And I realized for years, I had put all my energy into Portugal.
And then, once I accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish there Where's your style? Where's your style? I was so ready to surf the world again.
This thing is so beautiful.
This is the one I'm gonna ride at Mavs.
There was a world tour of big wave surfing at that time.
Best big wave spots, and there was going to be a contest at each spot.
How they determine who's invited is what is up for discussion.
Garrett was not on the list for the Mavericks contest.
He calls the director.
He's like, "Hey, I want to be in the contest".
"I've been at Mavericks many times.
I've put my time in there.
" He said, "You gotta be at every swell if you want to be invited to this contest".
He was just on a mission to be at every swell at Mavericks and prove himself.
And this swell popped up.
He was just gonna go for the day.
After being in Nazaré five years, Mavericks was a cakewalk.
I was in a really good place.
I felt super confident.
The forecast was a little sketchy.
Like there was going to be wind, no wind.
So I was one of the only guys that went, so I was so happy.
- Ready, Marco? - Yeah! Let's go.
I paddled out past everybody and sat there.
And boom, set came right to me.
I turn around, I take a couple casual strokes.
Stood up.
And then everything just kind of went wrong.
Oh my God!