A Brazilian surfer has claimed a new world record for the largest wave ever surfed by a female, with a death-defying ride on a 68-foot wave at the very spot she nearly drowned six years earlier.
Brazilian surfer Maya Gabeira rode the giant wave, measuring 68 feet (20.72 meters) from trough to crest off the coast of Portugal, on Jan. 18, 2018.
Gabeira narrowly escaped death in 2013 surfing at the same location at Nazaré, Portugal. She was knocked unconscious and nearly drowned after things went wrong surfing a monster wave.
“To set the world record has been a dream of mine for many years,” Gabeira said. “But of course, after the accident in Nazaré 2013, it felt like a very distant dream.”
“It took a lot of work to have a season like last year, to be 100 percent again; and to complete it with a Guinness World Records title is quite special,” she added.
Gabeira’s record-breaking wave also earned her another award: the Women’s XXL Biggest Wave Award, bestowed by the World Surfing League (WSL).
To catch record-breaking giant waves like the ones at Nazaré, surfers get a tow-in on a jet-ski, providing them with the speed needed to hook into the fast-moving monsters.
The WSL recently introduced a new category for waves caught the old fashioned way: with human paddle power.
Nazaré also produced the world record for largest wave ever surfed by a man, an 80-foot (24.38-m) wave, in November 2017.
Like Gabeira, the holder of that record, Rodrigo Koxa, is also Brazilian.
