The surfboard of Natxo González, a fiberglass board over two and a half meters long, bounced on a wave over 10 meters high as if it were an untamed horse trying to throw off its rider. A cutting Irish wind shook the body of the surfer, clad in armor formed by a 5-millimeter wetsuit and two vests, one to absorb impacts and the other to gain buoyancy. Mullaghmore, a great summit in Gaelic, displayed all its potential with turbulent water at seven degrees Celsius and an outside temperature of zero degrees. "It barely covered a handspan. I asked myself: 'What am I doing here? Am I going to die?'" Natxo tells EL MUNDO.
Then, as if driving at 150 kilometers per hour in a tunnel on an 80 km/h road, a light appeared at the end of that monster with a three-meter thick lip. "It was a brutal sight, the best of my life," explains Natxo as if recounting his entry into paradise. But it wasn't an entrance to paradise, it was the exit from hell. The surfer escapes the barrel crying, aware that he has caught the wave of his life. "It's a moment of euphoria that cannot be compared to anything in the world," he tries to describe.
Mexico, Portugal, El Salvador... There are many spots around the globe that Natxo is ready to reach with the right swell forecast. Always with logistics ready to jump to any part of the globe to push his limits time and time again. But there is something in Ireland that has attracted him since he first visited 10 years ago. "When I came for the first time, I saw crazy people riding these kinds of waves and thought that it was something I would never do," recalls the athlete. However, today it's those crazy people and the locals who tell him that it's "the heaviest wave they have seen someone paddle into."
Because the Basque surfer is one who tries to catch waves with the strength of his arms, which is why brands like Red Bull and Breitling have him as their ambassadors. He doesn't rely on jet skis to tow him into these giant waves. And perhaps that's why he is more respected in the pubs where he has spent two and a half months waiting for this moment. "The swell we were expecting had already been surfed five days before, and I already had a ticket to leave," González points out.
González, geared up to enter the Irish waters.Breitling
But when he saw what was brewing on the isobars, he decided to change his ferry ticket and wait for that mythical December 22nd. "I was so tired that I could only cry. With adrenaline pumping, I couldn't sleep from crying," recalls a young man who took almost eight days to come back down to earth. Who spent Christmas in the Basque Country still floating. "What am I going to do now in my life after this?" Natxo said as soon as he finished riding the wave of his life.
It was the goal after two years out of the water. Two years fighting to surf again after two accidents that left him with dizziness, vomiting, migraines... and other symptoms that barely allowed him to live normally. "I didn't care about surfing again, what I wanted was to be well, happy, that was enough for me. Obviously, surfing is my passion, but that didn't worry me as much. What I wanted was to be Natxo González again," reveals the athlete.
Puerto Escondido and a wipeout (falling off the wave) was the first warning, and Nazaré and a near-death experience after being hit in the back by a wave like a building, the second. The life jacket didn't work, and six more waves crashed on him. "Despite running out of air, I didn't feel overwhelmed, my brain told me: 'It's out of your hands now, relax. It was like falling asleep but underwater," recounts an athlete whose life was saved by a friend grabbing him by the head because he didn't have the strength to hold onto the buoy that jet skis tow. The lifebuoys that rescue in big waves.
Because Natxo enjoys surfing, but he doesn't have the urge to go into the sea every day and can be perfectly content on his couch for 10 days if the wave forecast doesn't satisfy him. What he is passionate about are big waves. Those where he started testing his skills at 13 to "shred the half-meter waves" in competitions. At first, they were a means to an end. Now they are the ultimate goal. The Holy Grail. The reason why this athlete travels the world in search of his limits and those of nature.
And it's true that, talking to him, you perceive a person completely fulfilled. Who could go fishing, an activity he loves and that helped him through his recovery, without eagerly looking for his next challenge. "I am at peace. I have pushed my limits to another level," points out the surfer. Because that wave marks a career, it tells you where you are now because you are aware that "the 17-year-old Natxo would have died." But not the experienced 31-year-old. The one who will probably return to Ireland, "a wild and unique temple," or seek a new challenge to test his limits in the water because it's his passion. "Life is for feeling alive," he concludes.