Original subtitles

We left with hopes and dreams.

Those hopes and dreams are now gonna be reality.

♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYS) ♪

I knew that the biggest waves in the world

were gonna be ridden in Nazare.

So, we came back the next year.

We felt that this was possibly gonna be the biggest ever.

SPEAKER: They came where the swell was picking up.

Big set.

MACNAMARA: Everything felt good, I was like this new man.

SPEAKER 2: Oh my god, that is a beast.

SPEAKER 3: There was no doubt.

And you know it was the biggest wave ever surfed.

(CHEERING)

SPEAKER 4: That was the moment all eyes came on Nazare.

♪ (MUSIC SWELLS) ♪

[TV static drones]

[bright tone]

- My mom's never been to Portugal.

We're really excited to have her here.

It's gonna be--you know, 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 we hang out with her,

it's been wonderful, so I think it's gonna be great.

Oh! - Oh, there she is!

- Wow.

2011, my mom wanted to come visit us,

and it was a challenging trip, a very challenging trip.

[heavy string music]

- Why you come over here to Portugal?

- To see Garrett surfing these awesome waves

and to look at the country while I have that opportunity

to be with him--it's mostly to be with him.

Oh, please get out of there! Ooh!

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.

- I 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 in those conversations with her.

- Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, pretty good, good.

- Ooh.

- Oh, oh.

- You got it.

- Yeah, I'm grateful for my mother

having such a relaxed way of raising me

and letting me experience life.

♪ ♪

Yeah, 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.

♪ ♪

[soft music]

- Check out these monster 100-foot waves off Portugal.

- The biggest wave ever surfed,

as high as 100 feet.

- To put that in 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 on waves of mind-boggling heights.

- What happens here happens nowhere else in the world.

- Biggest wave ever surfed. - The biggest wave ever--

- The 100-foot wave.

♪ ♪

[slow dynamic music]

- 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.

I got a lot of hard drives back there full of stuff

that I don't even ever access and don't even remember

or know.

♪ ♪

- 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

'cause 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.

[chuckles]

- The commune in California was a dream,

bunch of people, bunch of friends

who 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 Volkswagon 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 nonviolence

a fierce vegetarianism, celibacy,

anti-materialism, and love,

to talk to them is to invite scathing criticism.

- You come with an open heart,

you're gonna receive nothing but love.

You come with your arrogance,

you 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.

Then she burned 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 five, six, seven-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'd the kids come from?"

And my mom would always say, "Well, that was before."

The people would laugh, or they would get disgusted.

I mean, 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 long as I have Nicole, I feel secure, yeah.

[indistinct chatter]

Hey, we'll put this set on that ski.

- Yeah? - Yeah.

- And that one? - This ski.

You have a nice new warehouse, huh?

- Yeah, perfect. - Come on, fly over.

- I know, me too, so we gotta have some Skype dates,

so you can keep me on there. - [laughs]

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.

"You gotta come visit. You gotta 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.

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 and no one out.

And we just packed the van and drove down there,

check it out.

- First time in Praia do Norte?

- First time here. - 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 the surf mecca of 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.

- Hung out in Ireland when he started

sort of getting into big waves.

He's been British champion and a big name

in the competition sort of surfing scene.

- I've been running this morning,

and I feel kind of ready, as ready as I can be I think.

I'm gonna focus on the laughs. - On the laughs.

- I'm a goofy foot, so-- - Okay.

- Ride away from that cliff. - Yeah, please.

- [laughs]

When we arrived, it 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

the 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, like, all a little bit destroyed and stuff.

- When we arrived in 2010, we're like, "Okay, well,

"we've got to 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 8 feet high piled with fishnets,

the whole entire lighthouse.

We 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.

And we're like, we've got to get this open,

but our city hall friends, they're like,

"No, no, it's not possible, not possible."

And Garrett's like, "Anything's possible.

You just gotta 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.

Welcome.

It was a really special moment

because these children never imagined being able

to go into the lighthouse.

Maybe you can tell them the history right here.

- [speaking Portuguese]

- It felt good to give back to the people of Nazaré

'cause they've been really good to me.

Okay, bye-bye, ciao.

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 Stepánek.

He's a world record free diver.

He did this whole survival course with everybody.

- And take a big inhalation,

and start your dive.

- With our last pool session,

we were gonna do our longest static breath hold

in the pool.

- Make sure every single muscle is relaxed.

- I held my breath for 3 minutes and 15 seconds.

- And breathe.

In front of all these good friends of ours

and great family, will you marry me?

[upbeat music]

That afternoon we had a photoshoot

with Mercedes on the beach.

Later that night,

I looked down, and the ring's gone.

I mean, he literally gave it to me five hours ago.

I'm like, "Oh, fuck."

I have the pictures from the photoshoot,

so I'm looking at, like, every picture,

and I can see like, have the ring, have the ring,

have the ring, don't have the ring.

So my dad and I go down there with 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 back there."

The whole village was on the beach

looking for this ring.

They 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's 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, but I mean,

it was just--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, really.

[soft music]

♪ ♪

- No way. [laughs]

- At the lighthouse.

- It's a busy day for you, Garrett.

His idea was to surf a wave, and, like, surf into the beach

and then sort of James Bond style pull off his wetsuit,

and be ready in his suit ready for the wedding.

[laughs]

♪ ♪

- Surfed all day, 20-foot, glassy.

- We had an invite to the ceremony,

but the waves were pumping,

so we kind of carried on surfing.

[laughs]

- 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, you know?

Like, it was kind of magical.

- The energy of that team was-- we were a family for sure.

♪ ♪

[honking and yelling]

- [shouting in Portuguese]

[upbeat music]

- Think it's gonna work 'cause she's crazy.

- [laughs]

- 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 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, so 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.

- It was Butchy boy, Butchy Wong,

and it was right down the road.

Butchy's dad let us take his kneeboards out,

and the first few waves we got,

we weren't gonna do it on our knees.

We stood right up.

It was love.

- Our first board was a longboard,

and we cut the middle out of it

and fiberglass-ed it back together,

so we could have a small board.

We were definitely close when we were young.

In elementary school, we 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

'cause 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 and...

[soft music]

- I made some different friends

and would basically live at friends' houses.

One time, I was 15, we were partying

and got arrested,

and I got put in juvenile home.

They called my house.

Garrett answered the phone,

and he was partying at our house,

and he just kind of 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 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 '80s.

I was the editor of "Surfing" magazine back then.

Really, it was his brother

who was the loudmouth, 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 would paddle around him

and take his wave.

- Yeah, he wasn't my favorite guy in the lineup.

[laughs]

Yeah, you get guys that are aggressive,

and they keep paddle--you're sitting there.

You're waiting, 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, I got it, 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 judge's 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.

[laughs]

You know, 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, still pull in the tube and come out,

but he did it quite well.

- He was one of the most photographed surfers

in the world for about ten years.

♪ ♪

[playful music]

♪ ♪

- So Liam was the known McNamara brother.

- I won the Pipe Master Trials three years in a row.

- Yeah, 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, "Oh, that's Liam's brother."

- Yeah, I think he had a little jealousy

and a little animosity.

- Slowly, Garrett just started charging more,

and a little bit 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.

It 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've tried to get away from everybody,

and hide out on the outer reefs,

and just enjoy giant waves.

- A 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 name,

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 with me.

They 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?

- Um...

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.

Then I remember specifically telling my wife, like,

"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 kind of 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.

When you look at the numbers of people

who are successful in surfing careers,

it's very, very rare.

- Losing my main sponsor was tough, you know, like--

I mean, I had, like, a seven-year relationship.

It felt like I was in a--you know,

thought it was like a lifetime, you know?

It's like being 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 ten-year contracts.

And then every year you gotta produce something.

- Mommy.

- An expensive dream.

Everything, like the jet skis are expensive.

The flights last minute to anywhere are expensive.

If you don't have anyone,

you know, sponsor you or support you,

then who's gonna pay for it?

You know, I've got a family and a wife,

and it's like, what do you do, you know?

[cymbal crashes]

[taps drum]

There's loads of action in the Atlantic.

All of it's red.

It means there's a lot of swell out there.

It's almost like you got to be there, right?

It's frustrating.

It'd be nice to, you know, 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,

so you just need to be on the right swells.

- There's a long interval,

so we can get out--see how you gotta run?

Brap, brap, brap! - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- 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.

- See how it backs off, backs off.

It's so weird. - Weird, I know.

I've never seen anything like this.

- Look at this-- whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!

- Oh! What!

[giddy laughter]

- 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.

[indistinct chatter]

[soft ambient music]

- Let's find out the [indistinct] count.

If it's already peak,

then we gotta get whatever's there.

If it's still coming,

from 9:00 till 12:00 can we maybe break.

- Yeah, the high tide's gonna be better.

- Yes. - Even to paddle.

- Yes.

[phone ringing]

[string music]

♪ ♪

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 came close to that one, not even close.

♪ ♪

[over radio]

[indistinct radio chatter]

♪ ♪

I was so proud of that angle and that wave of Garrett.

- Photo was the most beautiful photo ever.

Surfer-wise, it was not worth even talking about.

The wave didn't really break.

- Garrett, being traditional surfer, like,

"That wave did not break.

"Don't you guys dare put anything out there.

It's not a real wave."

Like, he did not want us to do anything with that wave

but pretend it didn't happen.

- So I told them, "Don't do anything with it."

The photographer sent it straight to "Surfer Europe."

They write this big caption,

"Garrett claims to have surfed the 100-foot wave."

And I see this, and I'm just like, "What the--"

- Get ready for what seems to be the biggest wave

ever surfed, as high as 100 feet.

- Yep, that tiny dot is Garrett McNamara,

dwarfed by probably the biggest wave ever surfed.

- The media picked it up, and they said it was 100 feet,

and as Garrett's manager,

if they want to call it 100 feet,

I'm not gonna stop 'em.

- 100-foot wave, Garrett McNamara.

- That wave wasn't 100 feet.

I didn't ride a 100-foot wave,

and the whole world thinks I rode a 100-foot wave.

- Guy's name is Garrett McNamara.

He's 45...

- I remember looking on the news.

I just, like, blown it.

I should've like... I should've been there.

You know, like, 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.

It just felt...

Really, really similar to snowboarding...

I was thinking, "Make it, gotta make this."

I didn't realize it until the very end

that I was almost on the rocks when it kicked out...

[plucky upbeat music]

- In three years, we built the North Canyon Project.

In the beginning, it belonged to a few of us.

With that picture, it was basically done.

Finally, the people started to understand the potential

of our waves.

Now Nazaré belongs to the world, you know?

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 in the interview,

"Nazaré is the biggest wave in the world."

Let's go there and see, you know?

- It's not a low budget project.

We 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.

Was like a diamond, you know, in the world

that 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, you know, respect for the place,

but us coming in 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 woman around,

and she trained harder than everybody,

so she was ready.

The thing that really worried me,

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.

- First time I saw Nazaré really big was

October 28th of 2013.

I saw this one wave, and I just thought,

"No, how can it be?"

Like, how can a wave be breaking there?

Like, 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.

It was like a movie or something like this, you know?

This terror movie.

- We heard a lot about they backed off

the shore break.

We were used to shore breaks

because we come from Brazil, you know?

Brazil is a place of shore breaks.

But Nazaré was totally different.

It was more powerful.

- You have all kinds of directions coming in.

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 gonna be doable.

- They had no idea what they were dealing with.

If they come to me, I would share everything

that I learned there.

They didn't ask one single question,

not one.

- We just wanted to do it, you know,

because that's the way

we've been doing for so long.

You know, you gotta go and learn for yourself.

You gotta put time in. You gotta earn.

[soft dramatic music]

- 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.

Then the third wave, same thing.

And then I looked at her and said,

"Surf if you want to surf."

- A big set came in. We were driving towards it.

- I said, "Hey, Maya. The left, it's amazing.

It's yours."

And she let the rope go.

- I remember kind of falling on my back

and kind of seeing 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, you know?

So I was going around, and then I start to listen

to people whistling and screaming.

[overlapping shouting]

- I was, like, in that foam, and then I just, boom,

took this huge, huge wave on the head.

I blacked out of the impact,

and my life jacket popped over my head.

I stayed under for a long, long time

and underwater regained consciousness,

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.

- You know, 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.

- And 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 grabbing that rope.

- And he's, like, dragging her underwater,

and then she passes out, and she's just drowning.

- He grabs her, and he brings her to the beach.

- She died almost here, you know,

and he was reanimating her.

[tense music]

- I ran to the beach,

and it's the lifeguard and Carlos,

and I just remember him looking at me.

He's like, "She's dead. 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.

I'm here to surf the biggest waves

of my life with my team.

I'm gonna do that.

- So then he gets the 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, you know, we had something

that wasn't in our plans,

but that happens when you are surfing big waves.

- These are very dangerous waters, aren't they?

So why do surfers take these deadly risks?

- Well, as a big wave rider, you know,

our objective is to be safe.

If you get hit by the wave after you've been riding it,

we call that wiping out, and that's a failed attempt

in 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' responsibility

to take care of her, and he's just lucky

that she didn't drown.

- Yeah, I mean, he did take care of her, didn't he?

- I was very hurt at the time.

Of course, you know, I'm an athlete.

I get seriously injured doing my job,

and the first thing that comes out of one

of our icons' 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 you know, 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.

You know, at that point, you think, it's like,

"Well, why are you doing this?"

And I remember thinking how selfish they are,

and if you want to do this, that's fine,

but then you shouldn't have a wife,

and you shouldn't have kids.

- But I didn't expect anything like this to happen.

- Okay, I'm glad you're prepared for it.

- I'm prepared for it. - But nobody else was.

- Well, they're going in the wrong spot--

- I'm gonna go. - And pushing the limits of--

- I'm gonna go.

- It was the third year,

and that was the worst accident we had seen.

- 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 place 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 started to understand that

and copy our system.

- All swells booming down to Portugal with no wind,

no wind for, like, a whole day,

which is what I've been waiting for.

So I literally just booked a flight,

and we'll be in the sea before it gets light.

I was on the brink of reapplying

for full-time jobs, you know, 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.

[indistinct chatter]

Full of anticipation, you know?

Just want to get out there.

[unintelligible]

[soft music]

♪ ♪

As a surfer, the session wasn't great,

but the video footage just looks nuts, you know?

People were tagging it, like, "Biggest wave ever."

And then it wasn't till I'd return, flown 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 by trade

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, you know?

- I was super happy for him.

I couldn't wait to see him win.

- The winner of 2014 XXL 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, really.

Always had doubt, and, you know,

the story's too--it would've been too perfect, you know.

- He didn't win. It was a bummer.

[cheers and applause]

- When we got back in 2015,

we really wanted to create something on our own.

So we created the "Red Chargers."

- It was 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 waves sites do.

You know, usually it is--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.

You know, they've had to overcome a lot

to follow their dreams.

That is our goal is for all of you to know them as people,

not just as--

- The little dot. - The little dot.

[applause]

[cheers]

- 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 where Hugo is.

Right there, that's the wave!

Look at this one, Cotty.

- The idea was to have a little video

about each surfer,

really tell their stories.

[children laugh]

♪ ♪

- How'd it go out there?

- It was fun, yeah.

That's what surfing's about, isn't it?

Fun. That's super fun.

♪ ♪

- At that time, Garrett was training hard

and just surfing more than he's ever surfed.

- He was on fire, and he got a lot of good waves.

♪ ♪

- I was at the peak of my career physically,

mentally, with all of my partners,

sponsors, friends.

We had everything going so well.

Barrel! - Is that your dada?

Sick Barrel, Dad. - Whoo-hoo.

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?

Where's your style?

I was so ready to surf the world again.

Magic Stick, this thing is so beautiful.

This is what I'm gonna ride at Mavs.

- There was world tour of big wave surfing

at that time, best big wave spots,

and there was gonna 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 and is like,

"Hey, I want to be in the contest.

"I've been at Mavericks many times.

I've put my time in there."

They 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 gonna be wind, no wind, wind, no wind.

So I was one of the only guys that went.

I was so happy.

Ready, Fonso? - Yeah.

- Let's do it! - Let's go.

- I paddled out past everybody and sat there,

and boom, a set came right to me.

I turn around. I take a couple casual strokes.

Chh, chh.

[tense music]

Stood up,

and then everything just kind of went wrong.

- Oh, my God.

Oh!

- He's down!

[soft music]

♪ ♪

[bright tone]

GARRETT MACNAMARA: Before Mavericks,

when I crushed my shoulder, there was no fear.

I don't know what it's going to be like

when I get back out there.

♪ (EPIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪

MACNAMARA: The wave that I've been dreaming about for years

is actually on the map.

Now it's time to get serious, time to train hard.

I knew that someone was gonna get one of the biggest waves

of the year, for sure.

(SPEAKING IN PORTUGUESE)

MACANAMRA: I don't fear dying.

I get more fearful of not being able to surf.

I fear that.

-SPEAKER: Katie. -KATIE: Hi.

We got bad news. Padi got hurt.