18-year old Portuguese surfer vying for world's biggest wave
In old news that could become big news - if you're into this sort of thing - father and son team Ramon and Tony Laureano have submitted a wave to the Guiness Book of Records to determine if it is officially the largest wave ever ridden.
The wave, caught last October, is expected to surpass the current record of 24.38 metres, held by Rodrigo Koxa.
"It wasn't even supposed to be mine," said 18-year old Tony. "I had just fallen, and it was my father who, seeing that another surfer had canceled the wave, asked me "Do you want to go?", to which I answered without hesitation "Let´s Go!!!"
"When the jetski left me by myself it was impossible to get out of the wave. The speed was absolutely brutal."
Comments
Projecting into the future > I think bathymetry and its consequent physics will become common measurements in XXL surfing > so as to distinguish more clearly between the similarities and differences of, for example, riding Nazare vs Peahi. AKA LxBxW + Ltrs > RR
When the latest iteration of wave measuring got a boost via Bill Sharp and his K2/XXL franchise, the goal was to strip the metric back to its simplest form: No judges or subjective computation, just hand the award to the person who rides the tallest wave.
There are, of course, many ways to subjectively analyse the height of a wave: waves change height as they break, angles of parallax muddy the photographic evidence etc., but the ambition was to glorify big wave surfing in a way Joe Public understands. And that means vertical height is the one and only metric.
That was all put in place before Nazare was on the radar, and I sometimes wonder if, had the Americans known about Naz, they may have altered the criteria to somehow fit with what you and many other people are saying.
As it is, the Portuguese wave will hold the Guiness World Record in perpetuity and win the XXL Awards nine times out of ten.
Stu > your quantification of 9/10 pretty much sums up where I'm coming from. Hopefully they won't wait 10 years for the point to prove itself. > RR
Is it just the wave height no matter surfer placement?
You could shoulder hop the 10ft end of a 100fter and claim the glory?
I say this as someone who will never even consider having a crack at towing into a wave at Naz... but I find that sort of surf vision as boring as it gets.
I think if he fell off on any part of that ride he would no get caught by the whitewater/taken over the falls.
He would just fall off the back.
I cant see how that can be considered the biggest wave.
Completely agree.
i tottally agree
He only surfed the top 2/3’s of the wave!!!!Go figure....
Quite hard to determine where the bottom of that wave was and have to agree, while the kid has some solid cojones to be out there in the first place, riding the shoulder and claiming biggest wave does cut it.
+1 on the boring its a bit of a shoulder hop
He never actually made it to the bottom of the wave if there was one,but still a massive lump of ocean and i bet he was thrilled seeing all that ski wake he had to cross.......still a big achievment .
Rei dos hambúrgueres.
I agree. It was a small one. I dunno, also I just have to agree it was definitely a shoulder ride and no one really wants to ride a wave away from where the real action of the wave is so that wave was definitely a fizzer if comparing to other great big waves. This factor of being in the right spot is what is making Kai Lenny stand out. Kai is putting himself in the critical steep section of the wave where all of its energy is concentrated which is of course where every good surfer wants to be - and that’s why people are stoking about Kai’s surfing. Actually the size of the wave is largely irrelevant and always has been. Kai knows that and so does every good surfer. It’s more position on or in the wave that counts, not size. Size matters sure, but it’s only one factor and frankly too much is made of it. Some of these guys start to look a bit stupid when scratching for extra centimetres to make their claims on the “biggest” ride etc. who really gives a f”@&k. about any of that? It just seems like some sort of infantile obsession that goes nowhere. It’s more whether you are in the “spot” or not. And that’s why I didn’t name my dog Spot - nah not really, I didn’t name my dog spot because I don’t have a dog!! Who needs a dog when you are a dog!!
When my young fella asks me how he went I always tell him he got the biggest best wave, got the most air on the moto, that's a dad's job.
Too right.
That claim... it may have at some stage been the largest wave ridden, but he was certainly not riding the largest part of the wave. What a dingus.
Jesus that’s lame. Another cringeworthy moment in surfing