Gliding across 95 feet of smooth white, Andrew Cotton looks like he's snowboarding down a towering mountain.
But rather than landing on a sludgy pile of ice and muddy snow, he hops gleefully onto the sun-soaked beach of northern Portugal.
A keen surfer who relishes a challenge, Devon-based Mr Cotton has ventured to Nazare, famed for its 90ft-tall waves.
After the waves break, a bright white blanket covers the water - making it look like a ski slope.
It is the second time father-of-two Mr Cotton has tackled Nazare's ocean in recent weeks.
When St Jude's storm battered its way across Britain, he jetted to Portugal to make the most of the heightened waves.
He had been avidly monitoring weather data and eagerly anticipating the tide, but was disappointed because the biggest waves created by the storm actually hit overnight before sunrise.
He said he could hear the waves pounding the shoreline overnight from inside the beach house he is staying in, saying the monster swells were even making the walls shake.
Mr Cotton and his team were in the water before light at 6am, along with scores of other surfers all tried to ride the biggest wave.
Height does not make a wave more deadly - it is the force of the shallow currents that thrill-seekers have to worry about.
But it brings its own challenges.
Judging when to stand up to catch it in its prime is not as clear-cut as shorter waves.
And as surfers make their way down, they need stamina to control the board as they twist and turn for longer than usual.
Photojournalist Rui Caria from Nazare, Portugal, captured the moment as Mr Cotton powered through the Portuguese sea.
A huge wall of white water coated the sea in his images as a wave crashed into water at least one-and-a-half times its depth.
The 41-year-old said: 'The sea on the day was incredibly rough, which was great for the surfers because their job is to catch huge waves all over the world.
'Every wave is incredibly dangerous, and each wave was around 30 metres tall - I just can just imagine how the surfers feel in the water.
'Despite the roughness of the sea, we can see how elegant the surfers are in the tough conditions.
'When you are watching the surfers, you appreaciate the beauty of what they are doing, but it is quite stressful due to the risk involved.
'The waves were between 20 and 30 metres tall and were so loud and frequent - there was a constant sound.'
Mr Caria loves the photographs because of the fantastic swirls that were created by the ferocious wave.
He added: 'I love everything that is in the photographs.
'I love the swirls of the wave and when you first look, it looks like you can see a snowboarder on thick white snow.'
(dailymail.co.uk)
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