“What can I say, I got a little excited this morning and ending up having possibly the worst wipeout impact wise of my life.”
British surfer Andrew Cotton suffered a broken back during a wipeout while surfing a 60-foot wave in Nazare in Portugal earlier this week.
Cotton shared a video of the wipeout on his Instagram account (which looks even more dramatic in slow-motion) and pictures of him in a neck brace on the beach after the incident and subsequently of him lying in a hospital bed.
Footage of Cotton’s wipeout was captured during filming of a documentary about Garrett McNamara’s return to big-wave surfing and Cotton was quick to thank the lifeguards and medical staff for tending to him in the aftermath.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbPrTaAAk1Q/
Video via Instagram/Go_Dids via Storyful
“What can I say, I got a little excited this morning and ending up having possibly the worst wipeout impact wise of my life,” Cotton said on Instagram.
“Thank you to all the lifeguards and crew on the beach who helped stabilise me and do a great spinal recovery, I can’t name everyone but you all did your bit to get me safely to the hospital.”
“I have broken my back but I’ve been really lucky, I’m already looking forward and focusing my energy to get fit and back out there on some more big rollers,” he added.
