Getty Image / Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu
Measuring and certifying a surfing world record is difficult for a LOT of reasons, mainly due to it being insanely hard to accurately measure the height of a wave based on photographs and videos when there’s typically not a fixed location to measure from. However, there are rumblings that California surfer Alessandro ‘Alo’ Slebir might’ve set a new world record for the largest wave ever ridden.
The current surfing world record for the tallest wave ever surfed belongs to Sebastian Steudtner who rode an 86-foot wave at Nazaré in Portugal. And despite Nazaré’s break being right off the beach so spectators can watch, theoretically making it easier to measure from a fixed position, that record took 18 months before it was certified due to the lengthy review process.
So while we can all get hyped about this estimated 108-foot wave ridden by Alessandro ‘Alo’ Slebir from Santa Cruz, it will be a long time before we know if it’s a record or not. For now, we just have to appreciate this absolute mountain of a wave for what it is:
Here is some additional footage of the December 23rd swell at Mavericks in Half Moon Bay, one of the most famous big wave surf breaks on earth. Slebir’s potential record-setting wave is around the 0:52 mark in this video:
Lester Black at SF Gate was able to catch up with Alessandro Slebir and ask him about the potential world record for the biggest wave ever surfed. Slebir seems entirely unconcerned with records.
He told SF Gate “regardless of the number, it really doesn’t matter how big the wave was to me. It was really the biggest wave of my life and that’s all I really care about at the moment.”
Now, the surfing world will have to sit back and debate whether this was truly a 108-foot wave while the experts get to work attempting to measure it. We’ll circle back in a year or so once we know more.