Cover photo: Red Bull/Isio Noya 

The young Basque big rider Natxo González has put his name back into the history books of world surfing after dominating a giant outer reef that breaks in front of the port of Bilbao, he said in a statement sent by the press department of his sponsor, Red Bull.

"It's one of the heaviest waves I've ever seen in my life. It's an outer reef that breaks offshore in front of the Port of Bilbao," he said.

He added: “Personally, it has been a huge challenge for me. I have been looking for this wave for more than 10 years. Thanks to it, I bought a jet ski so that one day I can surf it like we did today. It is very satisfying. For me, it is a historic day. Today, possibly, the biggest waves in the history of our country will have been surfed.”

“The sea was rougher than we expected and the waves weren’t working at their best, but there were some giant waves coming that could be around 13 metres. The first wave I caught was the biggest. They say it could be around 10 metres,” said Natxo.

“Never before in my career have I encountered a storm of this nature with such low pressures. This is the biggest swell in Europe in history and we had to take advantage of it (…) The sea is our court and in this place everything is very big. We are in the middle of the ocean and there is no reference. On top of that, when you fall on a wave like this, you hit your body because you are going at high speed and you don’t penetrate the water. You roll like a wheel and it leaves your body melted for the next wave,” said Natxo, adding: “But all this doesn’t matter. The motivation today (yesterday) was incredible. The whole team has been very well coordinated. I felt safe. At some moments, I even felt like crying.”

The team that took part in the expedition was made up of three jet skis, the one that towed him had Adrián Fernández de Valderrama as pilot. The rest of the security team was made up of Aritza Saratxaga, Jesús Suárez, Jon Irigoyen and Alex Gironi.

The camera crew was made up of Jon Aspuru, Isio Noya, Mitxel Andreu and Edu Bartolomé.