Big-Wave Surfer Natxo González Opens Up About His Debilitating Head Injury

Natxo González is the latest big-wave surfer to have dealt with a serious head injury. The brain trauma almost ended his career and took the affable, positive and articulate Basque charger to a very dark place. While surfers like Owen Wright , Albee Layer , Billy Kemper, Sterling Spencer and Nikki Van Dijk have opened up about their head injuries, and the depression that comes with it, very little is still known about the extent and effects it has on surfers. You sense that these cases are just the tip of the iceberg.

For the first time in public, Naxto talks through his struggles and his ongoing recovery. It is a harrowing tale, but one Naxto is keen to tell to increase awareness of what might be a far more common injury than we think.

Can you describe the incident or incidents that caused your injury?

I had two concussions. The first was in May 2021 at Puerto Escondido. I was on a 9’6” on a big wave, and thought it would be the best barrel of my life. I was pumping through the tube when the foam ball hit me so hard in the face and I was almost knocked out.

What were the immediate symptoms?

I had headaches, vomiting, and dizziness and for the next month, I had a weird feeling. I rested for a month or two, didn’t surf and started to improve – or that's what I thought.

So you went back to surfing pretty quickly.

Yeah, I had little information; this was my career and I felt okay. So I started traveling and surfing big waves again. I went to Nazare that year in November with Twiggy Baker and we had an incredible run of swell. One afternoon, it was just us out. It was high tide and we were paddling. I missed one perfect bomb, saw it spit, and so when another came ten minutes later I put my head down. I was behind the peak and I only had one line; then it chandeliered and the whole wave landed on my head and back. It was the heaviest wipeout of my life; there was so much shaking, and after, I came up blind. I don’t remember all of it, but Twiggy dragged me on the sled. I said, “I’m injured bro, this is a crazy one.” I thought I’d broken my back.

The pain clouded everything. My friends would call to hang out, but I couldn’t move.

What was the result this time?

For three days I had blurred vision, vomiting, and headaches, and that continued for two months. It was heavy. I had no information and I didn’t take it seriously enough. I rested and started surfing after a few months. I even won some big wave invitee contests. The last one was at the El Quameo Classic in Lanzarote around Christmas in 2022. I won the event, but I didn’t care. I felt so weird, and had this sense of depression, because of the pain inside my head. I was getting barrelled, but I knew I had to stop. I couldn’t continue. I had the next five months in bed, with no lights, like a crazy migraine, it was so heavy.

Did you get any medical advice during that time?

I tried to deal with it myself initially hoping it would get better. But then I watched Sterling Spencer’s movie Are You Serious? about his concussion and in the documentary he said if you don’t work on the concussion you can die. If not from the injury itself, but from the sadness and depression that comes with it. I knew what he meant. I couldn’t see the light; literally and metaphorically. The pain clouded everything. My friends would call to hang out, but I couldn’t move. Like Sterling, I remember going to the local supermarket and being totally overwhelmed by the lights and the smallest human interactions. I had to leave. I had no energy to talk to anyone.

Related: Sterling Spencer Shares Journey to Recovery After Brain Injury in New Film

What was the lowest point?

The worst was when I didn’t feel like a surfer. Surfing wasn't even a goal. My only goal was at some stage in the future to sit and have a coffee with a friend with no pain. That was the extent of my ambition.

Who did you see?

I knew I had to go and work on it, but I had no idea where to go. I saw loads of doctors in Spain, but all the tests and diagnostics were inconclusive. One test however found that the blood flow was slow in one part of my brain which was a sign of a past concussion. Eventually, I found a good doctor, and I started to feel a little more positive. Then one day he told me that to recover I would have to stop surfing completely. He said I’d need to see a psychiatrist as my career was finished and that as of now, I was retired.

Surfers are getting injured every day, even if they don’t know it. It is definitely now a big part of every big-wave surfer’s career.

How'd that feel?

I wasn’t prepared for that, but I was mentally strong enough to say to myself and him, “No, that isn’t an option.” But I couldn’t find anyone to help me. Eventually, I called Red Bull, told them the situation and said I understand that you might not want to sponsor me anymore. I just wanted to be honest with them and explain why I’d stopped surfing.

What was their response?

They just said, “What do you need bro? And that they would help me with every single thing I needed. I have goosebumps and feel like crying now when I recall that call. It was life-changing. They took me to Switzerland to see a specialist and did four days of tests. Then I went to their Austrian athlete high-performance center, and with their physios, psychiatrists and doctors developed a brain treatment plan with exercises. Their help and support was incredible.

I was mentally strong enough to say to myself and him, 'No, that isn’t an option.'

And was what the results?

I started from zero in the middle of 2023. I couldn’t even do simple exercises, without getting dizzy. But they explained there was no simple key or method. I had to try different things and see how they felt Around two months ago, we made a few more adjustments and I started to feel so much better. I was back in the water, I was surfing and I was psyching.

Will you return to big-wave surfing?

I’m not 100 percent yet, but I traveled to Indo this week and yesterday I was getting six-foot crazy pits without pain. So mentally I’m good. I’m being patient, but I want to ride massive waves again. But I’ve learned with this injury that you can’t plan anything. There are real ups and downs, but at the moment, each day is better than the one before. Hopefully, I can return to traveling the world and charging massive waves like I was before the injury.

How widespread do you think these types of injuries are in surfing?

There seem to be few studies, so we just don’t know the extent of it in surfing or big wave surfing. There is zero information, but surfers are having micro impacts and concussions every surf, and over time that has to have an impact. And sure, in big waves the impacts are larger, but surfers are getting injured every day, even if they don’t know it. It is definitely now a big part of every big-wave surfer’s career. In my case, I have to be far more professional and calculating. I’ve been preparing myself for a year just to get where I am. I’m just so stoked and grateful to be where I am. To be a surfer again is everything to me.

Related: Billy Kemper Talks Brain Injuries and Mental Health in Surfing