100 Foot Wave Surfed at Maverick's? Potentially.

Originally posted on SURFER | By Dashel Pierson | Last updated Dec 30, 2024 12:27 PM ET

The business of measuring big waves is a tricky one. There’s multiple entities with their own calculation methods, there’s debate about where waves bottom out and where they peak, and there’s the endless stream of keyboard warriors speculating, arguing, and offering armchair analyses.

Unlike other, more objective world records, computing wave size is a byzantine science.

Nevertheless, there’s a new contender for the Guinness World Record of “Largest Wave Surfed,” as tossed into the ring by Alessandro “Alo” Slebir with his monster ride at Maverick’s from December 23rd, 2024. It’s speculated, potentially, that Alo’s wave measured 108 feet. And that would smash the current record held by Sebastian Steudtner and his 86-footer at Nazaré, Portugal in 2020.

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According to the Maverick’s Rescue crew:

“Using the same state of the art technology developed by Porsche engineering and team Steudtner under the same measurement, @aloslebir ‘s wave he rode at Mavericks on 12/23/24 measures in at 108 feet (32.9 meters) feet compared to Steudtner’s 86 feet (26.2 meters) the current world record. In the next few weeks we will confirm the height using the same method used to measure at Nazare.

“Alo’s wave was captured from the water angle, both video by @blakeneysanford and @jsandycam and still image which is proved to be more accurate than the cliff angle which has proven to add at least 10% to the height of the wave. Either way, given the margin of error, the hundred-foot wave threshold may have now been ridden. And fittingly at the heaviest wave in the world.”

As 2024 comes to a close, this wasn’t the first time this year that the discussion about a new world record was floated. Back in February, Lucas “Chumbo” Chianca and Steudtner both rode potential record-breakers at Nazaré. From the same wave measuring technology mentioned above from Porsche, Steudtner’s wave came in at 93.73 feet, which would’ve broken his 2020 record. As for Chumbo’s wave – which was arguably bigger – the official numbers have yet to come in.

Per our recent interview with Alo about his wave, here’s what he had to say:

“We were ready. That one felt a bit different because when I bottom-turned it felt like I was going backward. It felt like the wave was sucking me back up the face. Obviously you know by the speed it’s a big wave, but we were going so fast on every wave it was hard to gauge how big they were. But that one had a different draw to it. When I got to the channel and everyone was screaming, I thought it must have been a big one.”

Looks like the folks at Guinness need to update their book for the 2025 edition.

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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