British professional big wave surfer Andrew Cotton on Wednesday suffered a horrific wipeout at Nazaré in Portugal and was taken to hospital in an ambulance.

Dramatic footage showed Cotton being projected into the air as a mass of white water from a giant wave slammed into him. After being held down for several seconds, Cotton was then forced to try to duck a second monster wave before he was rescued on a jetski by his surf parter Hugo Vau.

During the rescue operation, the jetski was flipped by another wave and both Cotton and Vau were forced to swim to the safety of the beach.

A medical team quickly attended to Cotton, who was complaining of back pain. They immobilised him and he was taken by ambulance to hospital a few minutes later.

"Cotty" later posted this update on social media from his hospital bed.

“Thanks to everyone who helped this morning,” he said. “Everyone was really calm, you guys really saved my back, which unfortunately is broken but definitely could be worse, so thank you.”