Biggest Wave Ever Surfed

100 Foot Nazare and The Biggest Wave Ever Surfed
November 11, 2011. The Day That Changed Surfing Forever.

AUDIO RECORDING
Story written and recording performed by Al Mennie at The Surfers’ House Portrush.
Sound Edited, Mastered and Engineered by Miguel Oliveira.
Copyright Al Mennie 2023. All Rights Reserved.
Part of – Tales Upon the High Seas – Short Story Adventure Series by Al Mennie

In November 2011, one year after the beginning of the North Canyon Show three men ventured out aboard two jet skis into the North Canyon where it meets the shore at Praia do Norte, Nazare Portugal. They were supported by a crew of Portuguese locals as they set off to ride the biggest waves ever surfed. These “Biggest waves ever surfed” kind of story’s traditionally come from the Pacific, not a sleepy out of season village on the shores of the Atlantic. November 11, 2011 was the day big wave surfing changed forever.

The Surfers on this day were Hawaiian Garrett McNamara, Englishman Andrew Cotton and Irishman Al Mennie. The land based support crew were Pedro Pisco (Nazare), Paulo Lopes (Villa Nova da Gaia), Paulo Salvador (Nazare), Dino Casimiro (Nazare), Nicole Macias (USA), Jorge Leal (Villa Nova da Gaia), Guti Martin (Spain), Wilson Ribeiro (leira), Maria Joao Leite (Porto) among others.

a short film of one of the best big waves in the world. Mavericks, in half moon bay, California. This video was for the mavericks festival.
Featuring Justine DuPont, Grant Twiggy Baker, Kai Lenny, Trevor Carlson, Luca Padua, Ian Walsh, Bianca Valenti, Lucas Chianca, and more. Shot from 4 different swells out there

This time, watch as Ross Clarke-Jones and Tom Carroll take on New Zealand’s biggest waves in Storm Surfers: New Zealand.

The biggest and gnarliest day of May 2023 swell at the Wedge! Raw footage all filmed on the morning of 5/18/2023. Surfers and bodyboarders going for it on some big ones!
#surfing #wedge #swell

100 Miles off the coast of California… Some of the best big wave surfers in the World take on XXL Cortes Bank in pristine glass conditions.
As a commercial fisherman I have spent a lot of time out on the Ocean in good and bad weather. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen as good as conditions that we got on this Day ( January 13th, 2023 )

Perfect big waves coming in all day, and not a land mass in sight. It was a pretty surreal experience. A great white shark, 50 seals, and a bunch of surfers and water rescue shared the lineup that day. With a big film crew and a few boats watching from the channel documenting this rare in special day off the coast in the middle of no where. Bill Sharp was the mastermind of this trip. After the session he claimed it to be “The Greatest Surf Trip of All Time”. Which we all agreed. This was being filmed for an upcoming season of HBO’s 100 foot wave. Out of all the surfers that day, the only one that had ever surfed out there was Garrett McNamara. Lucas Chianca, Justine Dupont, Andrew Cotton, Nic Von Rupp, and Will Skudin had their first experience out there. And as you can see they all took advantage.

I Actually filmed a couple days before at Jaws, then went off the chase the same swell! took the red eye after to make it on the trip to cortes. We left San Diego Thursday Night and got to Cortes early Friday morning. Surfed from morning to about 3:00 PM and then headed back to San Diego and got back early Saturday morning. It was a quick and precise trip. One that I will always remember!