Australia’s Laura Enever has broken the world record for the largest wave surfed by a woman after paddling in, snagging a monster 13.3m high (43.6 feet) break in Hawaii.
The 31-year-old surfer achieved the feat on January 22 but after careful analysis and measurements by the World Surf League, the feat was confirmed, with Guinness World Records ratifying the feat on Thursday.
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The previous record was held by Brazillian-American surfer Andrea Moller, who had held the record of 12.8m for the past eight years.
While there have been larger waves surfed, with Maya Gabeira holding the unlimited women’s record of 22.4m, set in February 2020, but it’s much riskier to paddle in.
Big wave surfers often have jetskis tow them in to larger swells.
The record for the largest wave ever caught is held by Germany’s Sebastian Steudtner, who in October 2020 rode a wave measuring 26.21 metres at Nazare, Portugal.
Footage of the wave shows Enever paddling past a crowd of a dozen or so surfers before popping up on her board and hurtling down the face in near-free fall.
The barrelling break eventually envelopes Enever in whitewash.
“When it came to me I was in the perfect spot,’’ she told CODE Sports. “It felt like a gift. So I just told myself ‘this is it, time to go’.
“When I took off I looked down the face and realised it was the biggest wave I had ever been on. That’s when I told myself I had to make it to the bottom. Focus. Hold on and ride this wave.
“Once you go you can’t pull back. It felt like an eternity dropping down that wave.
“I looked up and saw the height of the wave coming down on me. It exploded on me.
“I was underwater getting thrashed around but I had a smile on my face. I couldn’t believe what I had just done.”
Enever, a former ASP Women’s World Junior Champion, used to surf on the World Surf League tour after going professional in 2011.
But the lure of big-wave surfing drew her away from the tour in 2018.
“I feel like a lot of my family and friends thought I was a bit crazy at the time,” she told the World Surf League after breaking the record.
“I mean, I’ve worked my whole like to be a professional surfer and be on the world tour and I was there and I gave that up for this pull and urge to surf big waves.
“At the time there wasn’t a lot of opportunity in terms of events and prize money and all those sorts of things. And I wasn’t really thinking about that. I was just thinking I just wanted to go do this for me. It was just for the love.
“To be here now and to have a Guinness World Record for the biggest paddle, I can’t believe it.
“Off the back of that wave, I’ve been invited into the Eddie Aikau event. It’s just given me so much confidence to go forward and keep doing what I’m doing, knowing that I’m on the right path.”
With AFP