Professional surfer Garratt McNamara broke a world record when he successfully rode a 90 foot wave in Praia do Norte, Nazaré, Portugal. And Pocket-lint has since learnt that the on-board camera footage of the feat was captured using a GoPro digital camcorder.

In addition, the footage was captured in 3D, which must be spectacular if it's ever released. More so, as had McNamara slipped up, he would, most likely, be dead. As he told UK newspaper The Guardian, the stakes were very high indeed:

"I just didn't realise how big it was," he said. "So I started and I kept going down and down and the drop seemed like forever. And I thought – wow! I started making the bottom turn and I felt the lip hit me. You can see it in the video. Usually I don't have time to look around but you see me look round twice and then I get hit by the white water on the shoulder and it feels like a ton of bricks. I've been hit like that before and I'm thinking: I've got to make this. I've never been held down by a wave that size and I've ridden big waves. I've seen waves rip a guy's arms off so there is nothing holding them on but skin and I'm thinking this could tear my head off."

We're not sure that GoPro would be quite as happy that its camera was used to film a guy's arms ripping off and hanging on by flaps of skin, whether the version is a Pocket-lint Gadget Award nominee or not. After all, what would he hold it with the next time?

UPDATE: We've just found out that the camera used in the record-breaking surf was the GoPro HD Hero (which we reviewed on 9 November). We've also gone hands-on recently with the latest model (and Pocket-lint Award nominee), the GoPro HD Hero2.

- GoPro HD Hero review