A 23-year-old surfer in Santa Cruz, California, is starting the new year on a wave of glory.
On Dec. 23, Alessandro “Alo” Slebir rode a wave that some people believe may be as tall as 108 feet at the legendary Mavericks surfing spot in Half Moon Bay.
If confirmed, Slebir’s wave would easily beat out the current record-holding 86-foot wave surfed by Germany’s Sebastian Steudtner off the coast of Praia do Norte, Nazaré, Portugal.
Slebir, a construction worker who has been surfing at Mavericks for the last nine years, told NBC Bay Area that he had no clue just how epic the huge wave was.
“Every wave was gigantic but there’s this feeling as a surfer when you are going down the face of a wave you’re going so fast that wave in particular there was so much water coming off the reef you could feel the wave wanting to go backwards,” he explained.
To tackle the Dec. 23 waves, Slebir had another surfer tow him out on a personal watercraft.
“I’ll tell you it’s the fastest time ever on the surfboard it was just beautiful one of the craziest rides I’ve ever had,” Slebir said.
The Mavericks Rescue crew told Surfer.com that it made the preliminary 108-foot estimate for the wave using “the same state of the art technology” used by Steudtner’s team to determine the height of the 2020 wave.
However, the publication conceded that “the business of measuring big waves is a tricky one,” with multiple entities using their own calculation methods, as well as “debate about where waves bottom out and where they peak.”
Slebir’s wave is definitely a contender for Surfer’s Big Wave Challenge, according to organizer Bill Sharp. Although he thinks the 108-foot estimate is a bit “generous,” he told SFGate that the wave is “absolutely in the world record territory.”
“Alo’s wave is remarkable. It’s one of the biggest waves that’s ever been seen and captured on photos and videos and they kind of speak for themselves,” Sharp told SFGate. “It’s going to require more analysis, but I think 100% in the discussion for the biggest wave ridden.”
It might be a little while before there’s confirmation whether Slebir truly did break the world record. After all, it took 18 months to confirm the height of the wave Steudtner rode at Nazaré.
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But the world record is not Slebir’s biggest concern.
“All I care about is that I rode the biggest wave of my life and I am grateful for it because it may never come again,” Slebir told NBC Bay Area.
