Andrew “Cotty” Cotton has pretty much done it all in surfing. But you’d never know it by chatting with him. Humble and unassuming may be the best words to describe the Brit. Late last month, in Nazare, Portugal, I had the pleasure of meeting Cotton and his partner, Justine Blanc, who is just as unassuming.
But humble doesn’t mean both aren’t fierce competitors in their respective lines of work. Blanc is a world-recognized force in the snow-ski world, Cotton has surfed waves in excess of 80 feet and is featured in the HBO documentary series, “‘The 100-Foot Wave.” On Oct. 29, 2020, the same day as Sebastian Steudtner surfed what was judged to be an 86-footer, setting a new world record, Cotton rode one that some say was even bigger, but was never judged as such.
I initially interviewed Cotton over dinner at a restaurant on Nazare’s south-side beach, where small to moderate waves break, and where tourists usually swim in the summer months. Later that week, we met again, this time to head out into the big waves via jet skis on the north side of the famous Praia do Norte lighthouse.
Cotton was on a machine that carried photographer Carlos Toro on the back, I was on the back of one piloted by Garrett McNamara, a legend at Nazare. Suffice it to say, the escapade turned out to be one for the ages (see link below).
Following are edited excerpts from my dinner conversation with Cotton, who grew up in North Devon, England, and who has been surfing since he was eight years old.
Jim Clash: Give me one highlight among the several in your storied career.
Andrew “Cotty” Cotton: Curiously, it was when I towed Garrett [McNamara] into his then world record wave [78 feet, 2011]. He had set a goal of getting that record within three years, and it was in the second year that he did it. It was magical, one of the best moments of my surfing career.
I can still remember him shouting at me to drive him in [to the wave] deeper. I just shut down, drowned out all the noise, and drove how I wanted to drive. If I had towed Garrett in deeper, where he had wanted to be, I don’t think he would have made the wave.
That day, he originally wasn’t going to surf. There were only three of us out there, I think. I don’t remember if it was the first or the second wave he caught, but afterward I said, “Done.” Everyone knew that it was the biggest wave ever surfed at the time.
Clash: Those big waves are pretty damn dangerous. Have you ever had a moment when you thought you might die out there?
Cotton: Yeah, I got washed into the rocks once. There was a second where I realized that this could be it.
Clash: What happened?
Cotton: I had been surfing, and my jet ski driver had just rescued me. When we came off the side of a big wave, he ended up in the air. When we landed, he was gone. I’m kind of lying on the [tow-in] sled, thinking, ‘Hell, what am I supposed to do now?’
In a split-second, I jumped from the sled into the driver’s seat and looked around. I could then see him. I thought he could get to the back of the ski. But when I looked up, there was a wave about to break on me, so I just hit the gas. I saw this gap. I was in a corner, and, if I flipped the ski there, it would have been bad. But I clipped the wave, and it just broke on me. I lost the ski. When I surfaced, I was on the rocks in front of the lighthouse, bouncing around like a pinball.
There was a few seconds where I thought, ‘If the next wave breaks here, I’m just done.’ But luck intervened. Rather than break, the wave sucked out everything near the rocks. The whole area emptied, and the foam left just pushed me to the other side, where the jet ski was floating. I swam to it, flipped it over and took off. The other guy was okay, too, on the beach – all good. But there was a moment where I thought that this was probably it.
Clash: That incident leads me to my next question: What are you afraid of, and how do you handle fear?
Cotton: I am afraid of the ocean. It can be really, really frightening. For the big waves, I have respect. Fear is healthy. Put it over here – respect it, understand it, embrace it. On the other side is being scared – high heart rate, bad decisions, out of control. If you can stay in that zone of fear, play with it, that’s where you want to be.
Clash: You say embrace it, play with it. What does that mean?
Cotton: I remember once Garrett and I had been tow surfing all day, really giant waves. At the end of the session, he decided he wanted to paddle in. Now these were some of the biggest waves ever attempted to be paddled in to.
I dropped him on the line as the sets were coming. He shouted, “Am I in a good spot?” There’s like three or four waves in the set. You have to be fast and in the vertical part of the wave when you paddle in. The first wave goes by, and Garrett lets it go. The one behind it is like 10 feet taller! I knew there was no way he could catch it. It’s about to break, he’s totally in the wrong spot and there’s nothing I can do to rescue him. I see him paddle towards it, then try to dive underneath. He had on so much flotation stuff that his feet just stuck up out of the water (laughs). He then got sucked into and over the falls.
I’m like, he’s dead. My heart was racing, there was anxiety, people on the radio were yelling, “Oh, Garrett’s coming over the falls.” I drive over to look for him, and he’s gone. Then another wave breaks, the final in the set, and I have to drive out and around again. All of a sudden, Garrett just shoots up out of the foam. I was expecting him to be in shock, pissed off, angry. But he’s got an ear-to-ear smile, and says, “Whoa, that was like the gnarliest thing.” He was absolutely happy.
I’m thinking, ‘He loves this stuff.’ And that taught me that you have to enjoy those worst moments, be prepared for them, embrace them, in order to surf the biggest waves. If you’re not enjoying it, all of it, then give up. That was a pinnacle moment of revelation for me.