Brazilian surfer Rodrigo Koxa has claimed a world record title after judges at the World Surf League Big Wave Awards confirmed that he rode an 80ft wave in Portugal.
The 38-year-old surfed the monster wave at Praia do Norte, off the coast of Nazare, on 8 November 2017.
That feat has now bagged him the Quiksilver XXL Biggest Wave Award, which comes with a $25,000 (£18,300) prize and “goes to the surfer who catches the largest wave of the year by any means - either by paddling into it or being towed in by a jet ski”, says CNN.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“I'm just so happy and this is the best day of my life,” Koxa said at the awards ceremony, in Santa Monica, California, on Saturday. “It’s a dream come true.”
The record was previously held by Hawaii’s Garrett McNamara, who rode a 78ft-high wave off the same coast in 2011.
Other surfers claim they have also broken McNamara’s record, but Koxa’s wave was the first to be confirmed as the biggest yet. “Experts can measure a wave from trough to crest by comparing it with the size of the people surfing it,” explains National Geographic.
The waves of Praia do Norte, where Koxa achieved his record feat, are famous for being among the largest in the world.
The beach’s westerly location on the European coast allows it to catch excessive amounts of wind from storms that sweep across the North Atlantic, which in turn produces ocean swells.
“The ocean swells get focused in this submarine canyon and have much more energy,” surfer and forecaster Micah Sklut told news website NPR in 2013. “So, first you’ve got really deep water, and then as it approaches the shore it gets very shallow, and that enables the waves to climb really, really big all of a sudden.”
Here are five more gravity-defying waves and their riders:
Garrett McNamara, Portugal
Raimana Van Bastolaer, Tahiti
Kelly Slater, Hawaii
Dylan Longbottom, South Pacific
Mike Parsons, Pacific Ocean
-
‘Human trafficking isn’t something that happens “somewhere else”’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
What would a credit card rate cap mean for you?the explainer President Donald Trump has floated the possibility of a one-year rate cap
-
Is the American era officially over?Talking Points Trump’s trade wars and Greenland push are alienating old allies
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
How Bulgaria’s government fell amid mass protestsThe Explainer The country’s prime minister resigned as part of the fallout
-
Femicide: Italy’s newest crimeThe Explainer Landmark law to criminalise murder of a woman as an ‘act of hatred’ or ‘subjugation’ but critics say Italy is still deeply patriarchal
-
Brazil’s Bolsonaro behind bars after appeals run outSpeed Read He will serve 27 years in prison
