Alex Botelho had a close call during the WSL Big Wave Tour’s Nazaré Challenge. And while wipeouts at Nazaré are kind of a guaranteed occurrence, it’s not as often we, the Average Joes, gain any real perspective of just how intense such a thing can be.
So here’s the scene: Botelho wows everybody on a beautiful right. He eventually can’t outrun the wave and finds himself washed into exactly where you don’t want to be, dangerously close to the rocks and thrashing around with wave after wave rushing in. At one point, while Botelho is still near the rocks, the crowd cheers and the camera pans back out to the peak. There’s another surfer taking off too deep on a left and everybody oohs and ahhs as he tumbles over the falls. The whole scene is pretty intense because remember, one of the best up and coming big wave surfers on the planet is nearby fighting for his life. The reminder: you don’t get to call a timeout at Nazaré. And while water safety personnel have their hands full saving one man, there’s another close by that somebody else now has to rush to.
