HORRIFYING footage captures the moment a surfer was caught in one of the biggest wipeouts ever, which trapped him underwater for minutes and left him coughing up blood.

    Video shows when Italian big-wave surfer and adrenaline junkie Niccolo Porcella fell off his board and was hurled through the air by a monster swell at Teahupoo, Tahiti.

    The 27-year-old disappears underwater for chunks of time in the recording, as he was repeatedly pummeled onto a coral reef as he remained trapped in the wave’s churning vortex.

    Porcella detailed his lucky escape in an interview with Surfing Life Magazine.

    “It was the most violent thing — I got annihilated,” Porcella told the magazine.

    “I was bounced, pin-balled on the reef, the whole nine yards. Just up and over and up and over. It held me under pretty long. My life-vest got blown off right away, and then the second wave drilled me — I actually hit the bottom even harder. Hit my back, my knees, and then I got about four more waves on the head after that… washed over the reef.

    “Manoa (his jetski rider) came over on the ski and his eyes were out of his head, saying that it was the heaviest wipeout he’d ever seen. I came up, spitted blood a couple of times.”

    Porcella also told the magazine he had a headache that briefly kept him out of the water, but he was back out trying to catch another “bomb” within about 20 minutes.

    Teahupoo, where the huge wipeout took place, is off the southwest coast of Tahiti and beloved by surfers for its great conditions.(SD-Agencies)