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Andrew Cotton - Croyde
With Autumn well and truly here, and the nights creeping in, denying many the chance of an after work surf, the surfing exodus begins as people head to warmer waters and world class waves. The Bali bail-out has already begun leaving the local line-ups that little bit quieter. Some of the areas top young surfers will spend the next couple of months cramming as much quality wave time to boost their performances and hopefully improve on their 2009 successes.
One person happy to be back home is Croyde surfer Andrew Cotton. Line-up caught up with the him following his latest globe-trotting monster surf seeking trip, which saw him covering almost 8000 miles in ten days to surf some of the biggest waves in two oceans.
30 year old RNLI lifeguard, and Pro-surfer Andrew “Cotty” Cotton has followed an unconventional path even by surfing standards. Following a pretty successful 2005 season on the British Pro tour, culminating in the champion of champions event held in Sri Lanka, he rekindled a long time friendship with Irish surfer Alistair Mennie (have a ganders at www.almennie.com ,big waves and Irish lunacy). Since then, the two friends have gone on to forge a reputation as one of the top Tow-Surf teams in the world. Their exploits began on the wild western coast of Ireland at a menacing break called Aileens. Breaking beneath 700ft sheer cliffs, this Atlantic monster offers some of the biggest surfable waves in the world with faces of 40-50ft.The team have since gained accolades and even a Billabong XXL bigwave award nomination for their trail-blazing exploits and have featured in the documentary Driven, a film that catalogues their Irish adventures.
And that's where his most recent trip led him to first.
“We'd seen a chart that we knew was perfect for Aileens, so I was getting ready and making plans when we got a call from the states.” Said Andrew as we chatted at his home in Croyde at the weekend
The two had been invited as the only European entrants in the invitation only Nelscott reef Tow classic the unofficial start of the tow-surf season with a world class field of big wave riders.
“We were really stoked to be invited to the contest, but we didn't want to miss Ireland as it looked like it would be epic.”
“Luckily everything worked out as the contest date was rolled back a day and we had just enough time to hit Ireland beforehand. So I had a mad dash via Bristol and Belfast followed by a 7 hour van ride for our first session at Aileens.”
“The waves were huge, it was almost too big to surf! It was critical stuff with the real prospect of not being able to get close enough to pick each other up in the event of a wipe-out.”
He usually plays down the dangers faced surfing giant waves, but mentions “Heaving death-pits and close calls.” when talking me through this particular session.
“It was great though and probably the biggest its ever been surfed”
Following a full on day of adrenaline fuelled giant Irish keg riding it was the small matter of the 48 hour dash to Oregon's pacific coast for the comp. As forecast the contest ran in 20ft+ waves.
“It was a great event. Ireland had been the perfect warm up for us. We were fresh and able to enjoy ourselves on the big open faces that Nelscott offers. I had a good surf and was pleased with my performance and had a really good spell driving Al into some real bombs.”
Cotty at Nelscott ©Richard Hallman/www.freelanceimaging.com
By the end of the day they finished 12th in the world class field. With Cotty 24th in the individual rankings. Rather than resting on their laurels the 2 big-wave junkies immediately headed via another long drive to Portland airport to start the next leg of their big wave odyssey. The charts were showing Ireland was going to pump, AGAIN, and their home break was calling. So several airports and a few thousand miles later the boys found themselves back on Eire's spectacular Atlantic coast towing big waves and grinning like Cheshire cats despite the lack of sleep.
“Its been mental, I've drunk more caffeine and travelled more miles than I thought possible. We didn't stay in the same place for more than eight hours”
What does the future hold? “ We've got 2 Hawaiian tow contest invites in the new year, again these are invite only, we'll be on standby for the 48hr call from the 1st of January. Jaws will be the big one I think. We'll continue to do our thing in Ireland as and when the swells hit. Our sponsors have been fantastic. The Thatch in Croyde have supported us so much in sponsoring the ski for the last 2 years, West wetsuits have paid entry fees and Analog have given me help, motivation, cash and support and can't thank them enough”
The question why do you do it Leads to a pause, a grin and a fumbled eeerrrr...
Did I mention he's done all this with a busted cruciate ligament and wearing a knee brace??
The exploration of big wave surfing will continue and we'll keep you updated on his progress over the coming months.
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