With great power comes great responsibility, blah blah blah.
Same goes with surfing – with riding big wave comes big wipeouts. Especially surfers of the big-wave persuasion who push the limits at some of the world’s heaviest spots like Nazaré, Mavericks, Jaws, or the handful of hellish slabs in the UK.
Surfers like Portugal’s Nic Von Rupp.
And in his latest video, he breaks down his “gnarliest wipeouts of the last couple of years. The ones that really hit hard. Here we go.”
It’s a brutal compilation, featuring the likes of big-wave hotspots like Nazaré, Mavericks, Ireland, Scotland, and more. All with failed attempts at glory.
But so it goes in the life of a big-wave surfer.
It’s not all riding away clean from monster waves and cheering from the beach and kissing babies while walking up the sand to receive the key to the city from the mayor.
There’s carnage, too.
This small clip actually comes from a larger YouTube video from a while back, in which he more thoroughly explains his worst wipeouts of all time.
Specifically, let’s look at one from Nazaré:
“I was feeling really confident with the wave,” NVR says. “Playing with the wave, putting myself right in the impact zone. You wanna push the limits, but sometimes it’s just too much. You gain too much confidence, and the thing gets you.”
Backwash hits the lip on this particular wave; NVR gets swallowed; he continues:
“That thing was so brutal, so violent. But I managed to come out in one piece. I definitely have a guardian angel looking out for me.
“If there’s one piece of advice I can give you, it’s all about breathing. Staying calm. Not panicking. Save your energy. All will be fine…until you get knocked out. [Laughs.]
“The truth is: if you wanna progress, you gotta wipe out.”
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