Surfs Up! And up…..and up a little bit more! Yeah that’s probably high enough
Some of the world’s best big wave surfers congregated in Santa Monica for the 2018 World Surf League Big Wave Awards. The ceremony took place on Saturday 28 April at the Red Bull headquarters in California and awarded the most *bitchin’ gun riding crest surfs (That means *awesome big wave board surfing of a wave. Apparently.) over the past year, including a new world record for the biggest wave ever surfed.
38-year-old Rodrigo Koxa from São Paulo, Brazil was awarded the Quiksilver XXL Biggest Wave Award 2017 trophy and the $25,000 (£18,000) prize for his record-breaking wave in Nazaré, Portugal on November 8, 2017.
The wave was 80 feet high (24.38 meters), that’s as high as two city buses stacked end to end! The new record overtook Garrett McNamara’s record, whose wave was marked at 78 feet (23.77 meters) in 2011.
Photo: Adrian Wlodarczyk
In an interview with Guinness World Records Koxa said:
“I’ve tried to surf big waves all my life and I had a huge experience in 2014 where I almost died at Nazaré,” Koxa said. “Four months later, I had bad dreams, I didn’t travel, I got scared, and my wife helped me psychologically.
“Now, I’m just so happy and this is the best day of my life. Thank you to WSL, it’s a dream come true.”
Check out Koxa’s record breaking wave in the video below.
The incredible record might never have happened after Koxa suffered a near fatal accident at Nazaré back in 2014.
“I had a bad situation in 2014, I almost died over there,” he said.
“I had bad dreams and I stopped having the courage. For more than one year after that, I was afraid. I stopped going in the big swells.”
With the help of his friends he slowly regained the confidence to surf in the big swells again. Koxa has spent most of his surfing career as somewhat of an underground athlete. Winning the Quiksilver XXL Biggest Wave award as put him firmly in the surfing worlds spotlight.
What do you think about that far out surf? Let us know in the comments below. Why not float on over and hang 10 on this…..
7 Things We Can Learn From Rodrigo Koxa, The New Sporting Hero
