G. Mac at Maverick’s. Click the photo to watch the full documentary by the Olympic Channel. Photo: WSL / PHIL GIBBS
Usually, when we talk about Garrett McNamara, we are also talking about Nazaré, something spectacular he did at Nazaré, or how he is forever intertwined with the history ofNazaré. But remember more than two years ago when he made headlines around the globe for enduring possibly one of the heaviest wipeouts ever at Maverick’s?
McNamara’s absence from the Mavs lineup lasted nearly two years after he got skipped across the surface of a wave like a pebble and had his arm snapped in the beating that ensued. He’d been told he may never surf again, which of course, didn’t happen. And in a big wave world where life-threatening wipeouts get one-upped by heavier waves and nastier spills every swell, we more or less filed McNamara’s Maverick’s spill in the history books where it belongs and possibly even forgot, “Oh yeah, that one was heavy.”
It turns out when he returned to Northern California this January, he had a documentary crew with him. “Shredding Monsters” became the hour-long documentary of his return to Mavs alongside Jamie Mitchell, Aaron Gold, and some other big wave friends. “They said I might have PTSD. I did for a bit,” he says.”But I feel like I’m over it. I’m living in the moment.”
You can watch the full documentary on the Olympic Channel here.
