Sick Bastard Pulls Off A Ridiculously Narrow Rescue Of A Big Wave Surfer At Nazaré
Nazaré is home to some of the most insane waves on the planet. It was home to the largest wave surfed in 2011 when Garrett McNamara rode a 78 ft wave. That record was broken was Rodrigo Koxa rode a wave at Nazaré in November 2017 that was measured in at 80 ft. And then last year, Tom Butler rode a wave at Nazaré that people have estimated to be 100 ft.
So yeah, you've got to be a sick bastard to even consider surfing Praia do Norte, and then you've got to be an equally sick bastard to be on the rescue crew there. Because every single ride there is pretty much cheating death, and then it's your job to make sure that death doesn't squeak in a backdoor cover at the end after each wave. Which brings us to these animals.
You've got Lucas Chumbo surfing and he catches a great ride. Maybe not the biggest wave we've ever seen out of Nazaré but he still bombed down the face of that wave and then got out of there cleanly. The only issue is that there was another wave waiting right behind him, and another bigger one forming right behind that one. If he doesn't get pulled out of there before that next wave crashes down on him, it is going to be a BATTLE to survive.
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In comes his teammate Ian Cosenza on the jet ski for the rescue. Guy has maybe a couple of seconds to be in the exact right position to not only get Lucas Chumbo out of there alive but to make sure that he stays above the water too. And holy goddamn shit did he come close.
The ski gets swallowed by the wave which you could typically consider a "welp I guess we're fucked" type of situation. But he just keeps crushing that throttle and somehow they're both able to make it out of the wave and continue to outrun it. Just a massive win for humans over nature. Definitely one of the bigger underdog wins we've seen in a while. Sick sick bastards.
h/t Extra Mustard