Nazaré, Portugal is in the news again as another athlete has surfed a massive wave off its coast. On Sunday, Andrew Cotton took advantage of a swell that was created by Winter Storm Brigid, which was big enough to be entered into the 2014 Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards presented by Pacifico.

“As I turned around I looked at it and it was obviously a big wave, but I didn’t realize how big it was going to be,” he said after he came ashore, according to The Daily Mirror. “I’ve never ridden a wave like that. I was hurtling down it so fast. It makes you wonder how far we can push it, how high can we go.

“There was obviously a bout of nerves. You’re in the hands of mother nature. But that’s what’s exciting.”

Cotton, a 34-year-old from Braunton, North Devon, United Kingdom, said the ride was “a victory at sea.”

“He is so passionate about this it would be wrong to stop him. He’s been surfing since before I met him and this is what he feels he needs to do. He’s following and living his dream,” Cotton’s wife Katie told the Mirror. “It’s terrifying for me but he wouldn’t do it if he thought it was stupid. He trains every day for two to three hours. He knows what he is doing and has a huge safety setup—sea police, the Navy, people on jet skis, a life guard.”

Now, the question that remains to be answered is whether or not this is the biggest wave ever surfed.

Check out the video of his ride below.

Image from Alvesgaspar on the Wikimedia Commons