A Santa Cruz surfer rode potential world-record 108-foot-tall Mavericks wave

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | December 31, 2024 | Lester Black

[artichokegrower]

At about 3:15 p.m. on Dec. 23, as a powerful winter swell raged on the California coast and left the Santa Cruz Wharf snapped and floating in the ocean, Alessandro “Alo” Slebir pointed his surfboard down the face of a growing wall of water. What came next may end up in the history books.

[artichokegrower]

That’s a big wave

[Fester Chugabrew]

Did The Ventures write a precursing tune about it?

[artichokegrower]

Surfaris

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBURLdhmmZ8

[Sicon]

Things like this always leave me in awe of what human beings are capable of doing.

[aquila48]

That's 11 stories high!

[Fester Chugabrew]

Ah, yes.

As an aspiring drummer in my youth the question was always asked:

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Can you imagine what that thing looks like from the inside?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Wow, incredible!!

[steve86]

It’s amazing how the personal watercraft can sit there a few feet away in relative calm, being affected only by non-breaking swells at that spot. The waves, although skyscrapers, are not very wide from one end to the other nor do they cover all that much distance. But I am not diminishing them in any way — it’s the HEIGHT that counts!

[going hot]

Green and blurry, ...then white, lots of white. Then sand.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Slowly at first, then suddenly.

[mairdie]

Watched several versions on YouTube. Impressive!

[Karliner]

Surfed that place back in the 70’s. Called it RADARS or just Pillar Point...of course we surfed much smaller. We’d watch when it was big and wondered how to do it but it’s was so scary with the water out there, the kelp bulbs popping up, elephant seals and ...just mysterious.

Wih no one around in that despoalte area, that far at sea knowing there were sharks, solo or one guy, no cord, no safety team, no one it wasn’t until some Half Moon Bay guys like Jeff Clark began to surf regularly but that was id 80’s.

Now...now these guys have full teams, condition years round, sponsors and a bundle of hard charger.

It’s not easier and not safer. These guys are surfing waves three times the size of my years. Kudos to this kid. That wave is a beast and very big, killer big

[Billthedrill]

Holy jumpin’ moly. Don’t look up, yer dead.

[mowowie]

I have a Oculus VR headset that i barely use.
I did surf a wave like that on it though.
It was pretty incredible.

[joshua c]

it looked like they were riding snowboards with foot straps

[abigkahuna]

Its at Half Moon Bay and there are rocks there—it has been surfed locally for some years but finally “discovered” in the 90s. It has claimed the life of at least one surfer...got caught in the rocks and didn’t come back up its believed.

[poconopundit]

How does a little man pick up enough speed to "catch" a wave that huge?  Farther down in the story, the writer explains:

"...Monday’s incredibly powerful surf required Jet Skis for surfers to gain enough speed to ride the towering waves. 

Slebir said [he and his partner Padua] worked for seven hours without taking a break during the historic swell.  Slebir gave Padua 99% of the credit for the wave because his tow partner placed him perfectly into [the wave]."

[Sarcazmo]

Cmon man.... that’s not Santa Cruz...

[Liz]

Holy moley.