Biggest Wave Ever Surfed

Rodrigo Koxa, 38 years old from Brazil, just won the WSL Biggest Wave Award yesterday in a ceremony held in Los Angeles. The wave in question was ridden back in November 8, 2017 in Praia do Norte, Nazaré Portugal, and was now officially measured at 80 feet, making this a new Guinness World Record for “Biggest Wave ever Surfed”, and beating the previous record of 78 feet by just 2 feet, held by legendary big wave surfer Garrett McNamara on a wave also ridden in Nazaré back in 2011.

This wave was part of a 4 waves monster Set, nicknamed the “Super Set”, which came through the shores of Nazaré during the famous “Big Wednesday” back in November and was one of the biggest days in recent memory. The same day, Andrew Cotton broke his back on a famous wipeout, Andrew also won an award at the same ceremony, the Biggest Wipeout of the year.
These huge waves in Nazaré resulted from a heavy Winter Storm in the North Atlantic during the previous week, due to specific characteristics of the ocean floor near Nazaré, which has a giant underwater canyon. The wave size gets amplified by a factor of 3 or 5 times when waves reach the shore, resulting in this phenomenon and creating the biggest waves of the planet, right in front of the famous lighthouse.

Koxa’s new world record didn’t come easy. Surfing the biggest waves in the world means enduring the worst wipeouts in the world, and he’s no stranger to the power of Nazaré. Four years ago, he almost lost his life there. “I try to surf big waves all my life and I had a huge experience in 2014 where I almost died at Nazaré,” Koxa said. “For 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.”

* Watch the complete raw footage of this Super Set (Koxa’s Wave is the 3rd of the set): https://youtu.be/Xp21w9WyW4s

* Watch Andrew Cotton’s Wipeout that broke his back, on the very same day of this World record wave: https://youtu.be/buMIbUPhT_A
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Copyright © 2018, Pedro Miranda, all rights reserved
Surfer: Rodrigo Koxa (Brazil)
Location: Praia do Norte, Nazaré – Portugal
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