Biggest Wave Ever Surfed

Watch Maya Gabeira set a new Guinness World Record for the biggest wave ever ridden by a female surfer.

The Brazilian surfer won “XXL Biggest Wave” at the 2020 Red Bull Big Wave Awards with a spectacular ride on a 73.5-foot (22.4 meters) wave at Praia do Norte, in Nazaré, Portugal.

The World Surf League decided that all data regarding potential world record waves should be reviewed by an independent scientific team.

The team included members from the WaveCo Science team, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and the University of Southern California, Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering.

The analysis was based on video and photo imagery, camera locations, camera lens parameters, and environmental conditions, including tides, sunlight, and wave set-up.

Collinearity equations were used to transform the image coordinates into real-world coordinates based on estimates of the geometric parameters, including the height of the cliff at Nazaré.

In addition, fixed reference points in the imagery, including the surfers’ heights, surfboard and jet ski dimensions, and estimated crouching heights, were utilized in the scientific calculations.

Maya Gabeira’s world record wave was surfed on February 11, 2020, at Praia do Norte, in Nazaré, Portugal.

She improved her previous mark set at 68 feet (20.72 meters).

Footage: Pedro Miranda/Laurent Pujol/WSL
Photo: Damien Poullenot