You may remember McNamara — the surfer who broke the world record by riding a 100 foot wave in Nazare', Portugal in January. His dramatic surf through the Portugal swell went viral and wowed the world.
Cooper, who was trying to bring the big wave surfing experience to his audience, was left nearly blind after burning his eyeballs from the sun while he was riding the waves on the back of a jet ski driven by the world-class surfer.
The bruised and battered CNN anchor had to cut the filming short and got a patch on one eye at the hospital.
"What we wanted to do with this story was to take the viewers as close as possible - as close as most people will ever get - to a big wave," Cooper said.
Cooper got more than he bargained for.
In a clip released before the show's March 6 air date on Showtime, Cooper is seen daring McNamara to split two giant rocks protruding from the ocean.
The show's concerned producer, Keith Sharman, watched as Cooper fell off his seat and into the choppy waters before zipping through the obstacles on the second attempt.
"McNamara was reluctant," said Sharman. "I couldn't see [Cooper] from the cliff and that wasn't a good feeling.
"I think the first rule of producing is probably don't kill the correspondent," added the producer.
The crew was able to get enough footage — a lot of it from Cooper holding a camera on a stick. But not with out the blindness scare.
"I woke up in the middle of the night with excruciating pain in my eyes. It felt like I had sand or rocks in my eyes," said Cooper. "It turned out I burned my eyeballs."
Nice job Coop. Next time wear a pair of Oakleys.
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