Last week, a California surfer ripped through a monster wave at Mavericks and may go down in the record books.
Alessandro “Alo” Threbir, 23, was surfing with friends on Dec. 23 when he came across a popular surfing spot just north of Half Moon Bay that some people were surprised to see. I caught a breaking wave that was 108 feet high. A few miles southwest of San Francisco.
Slevia was in Hawaii when he heard that a big storm was brewing off the coast of Japan, sending huge waves across the Pacific Ocean and heading straight for Mavericks.
“It wasn't like a decision to go or not to go,” he said. told KSBW.
“You're going so fast on your surfboard, probably going 30, 40, 50 miles an hour. That wave was so high and it was sucking up so much water and coming back, it was a weird feeling.” Threbir said. “I can feel the friction of the water under my surfboard, something I've never felt before on any wave I've ridden.”
Incredible footage captured the impressive feat, showing Srebiel fearlessly riding the gigantic waves that were more than 10 times his height.
This young surfer stayed close enough to outrun the crashing waves that exploded into rapids just behind the back of his board.
Experts are still working to confirm the estimated wave height of 108 feet. This blows away the previous surfing record of 86 feet above the water.
German surfer Sebastian Steutner won the Guinness World Records and World Surf League title for the biggest wave in surfing history in 2022 when he rode an 86-foot wave in Nazaré, off the coast of Portugal.
But crowning a new record holder may not be so easy, with some experts likening the process to “appointing a new pope.”
“You can measure Everest every day for 100 years, but it never moves,” says Bill Sharp, who has spent decades organizing the world's most rigorous big-wave surfing awards. he told the Los Angeles Times. “But even the biggest waves only last a few seconds, and then they're gone forever.”
A group of insightful experts follows a process known as photogrammetry, which compares the size of the surfer in the footage to the height of the waves.
The process is complicated by the fact that surfers are not standing at their highest height when riding a wave. Additionally, some may be willing to be an inch or two shorter than their stated height if it means taking home a new title.
It's also difficult to determine exactly where the flat water in front of the wave ends and the uphill slope begins.
If Threbir is crowned the new record holder after the long process, it will be the first time in more than 20 years that a California wave has held the title.
