Australian surfer breaks leg on "biggest wave ever ridden in Australia"

A surfer who braved 20-meter swells off the coast of Western Australia (WA) is recovering in a Perth hospital on Monday, after he broke his leg attempting to surf what was called "the biggest wave ever ridden in Australia".

Professional big wave surfer Justin Holland, 35, had surgery on Sunday to have a titanium rod inserted into his leg after being dumped by an 18 meter high wave off WA's Margaret River coast. [ The New South Welshman, who made the cross-country trek to surf the swell, broke his left femur under the weight of the monster wave which, according to Holland's friend Jamie Mitchell, was the biggest of the day and one of the biggest swells seen on Australian shores in more than a decade.

"I pulled him onto the wave (on a jetski), so I was pretty excited, but when he came up and I went to get him he was just saying his leg, his leg," Mitchell told The Guardian.

"His leg didn't get out of the leg strap quickly enough, and I think that's what broke it."

The monster swells were the result of a low pressure system in the Indian Ocean, which prompted surfers from around the world to converge on the Western Australian coastline to catch a big wave.

Having spoken to Holland who is recovering in a Western Australian hospital, Mitchell said the father of two couldn't wait to get back on the board.

"It's going to be six weeks before he can walk and three weeks (after that) before he can surf again," Mitchell said.

"I don't think he has any regrets. At the end of the day he got one of the biggest waves ever surfed in Australia, so that's pretty cool."

Photographer Jamie Scott was at the event when the incident took place, and told PerthNow that he had never witnessed a larger wave on Australian shores.

"It was probably the biggest wave ever ridden in Australia," Scott said.

"Justin got to the bottom of it and then it cleaned him up."

Mitchell said both he and Holland would make the trip again in a heartbeat, as all thrill-seeking surfers were hooked on chasing the monster waves.

"Surf that size comes along a few times every few years, but to get the conditions - for the weather to be sunny, the wind to be right, it's very rare," he said. Endi