British surfers are earning a reputation as among the most adventurous in the world. Big wave surfing, the specialist pursuit of monster swells the size of two or sometimes three houses, is the coming craze in the UK surfing community.

Not content with carving elegant shapes and scoring points for technical merit in conventional contests, an elite band of "heavy water" pioneers are travelling the world following low-pressure systems that produce waves that tower 19 metres and higher.

Andrew Cotton, from north Devon, is the latest surfer to survive one such giant wave at Mullaghmore Head in Ireland. In 2008, Duncan Scott, 29, and Alistair Mennie, 27, were nominated for Billabong's Ride of the Year after surfing waves as high as 18 metres in the same area.

In the past couple of years, the unbroken Atlantic swells off the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland have captured international attention and are now seen as challenging as the famous big wave breaks such as Jaws off Hawaii, Mavericks in northern California, and Teahupoo in Tahiti.

Big wave riding draws parallels with early mountaineering as surfers compete to scale greater heights as equipment improves and training programmes become more advanced.