Quotes from Garrett McNamara

I can be sittin' at home in Hawaii and see the biggest swell of the year coming here and be so happy and just say, 'No, I'm happy right here.'

I lose my mind if I miss a swell that I want to be on and I have the ability to be on it.

Danger is real. But fear is something we create.

It really is never too late, it really is never too early to figure out your goals and dreams and what you love.

I broke ribs three different times.

I've got a really amazing ability to forget and disregard information that comes in my brain.

My brothers said I was always the craziest, always pushing buttons.

Follow your heart and fear does not exist.

I got married at the lighthouse , the 16th-century Forte de Sao Miguel Arcanjo, on the edge of the promontory of Sitio.

There's giant waves in numerous occasions around the world, it's a matter of the wind being offshore.

Nazare is a special place for me; we got married right there, at the lighthouse. The seafood and wine are amazing. Best of all, there are no sharks: they are much more scary than a big wave.

When you wipe out, all you can do is let the wave take you and stay calm until you can come up for air.

I'm not a thrill seeker.

My mother married this guy, his name was Darryl. And he was moving us to Hawaii. And he was a musician. He was working with Don Ho's daughter, actually. And then he ended up meeting some girl, left my mom, and me and my mother and brother were stuck in Waialua at Cement City. It was pretty much the armpit of Oahu.

It never happens in Europe, and I'm not sure how often it happens here in Australia, but in Hawaii and all over the United States nobody knows what a fast lane is.

If I go to the gym and I put the headphones on, I'm going to go a hundred and ten percent until I leave.

You can go very quickly from heaven and find yourself in hell.

After I made my comeback in 2002 and won the Jaws Tow-In World Cup, the eyes of the surfing world were on me in a way they'd never been before.

You won't catch me riding a horse, because I'm afraid of them.

I might just paddle out to hang out, and if I get a wave, I'd do it, but if I don't, it's still worth it.

I'm hurtling down bumpy, choppy water very close to being out of control, doing everything I can to stay on my board. One misstep and you're going to get squashed by tons of water. To not get hurt, I need to take everything into consideration: strength, nutrition and mind-set.

God must love tow surfers - and I'm not a religious person.

We didn't have much money and my mom scrounged up $15 and bought us a surf board at a yard sale.

If you get under water, you're at the mercy of our team coming in and getting us before we get another one on the head, and another one on the head, and another one. Or, we have to be able to handle it, and that's where our trainer and our coaches and our people who help us stay fit come into play, the other part of the team.