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California’s Alo Slebir unofficially broke the big wave surfing world record
- ungreased0675 1y agoPhotography of the surfers seems to be an important aspect of the scene. It’d be interesting to read a story about that.
- yostrovs 1y agoThe underground rock formation that generates the Mavericks waves is actually pretty small. Photographers, rescue jetskis, and onlookers on small boats can be on very calm water, while surfers they're watching are riding a 100 ft wave just a few meters away.
- throwup238 1y agoIt’s how the size of the waves is calculated. They talk about it in the first season of the 100 Foot Waves TV show mentioned in the article. Video from several angles is analyzed using the surfer or another known object for scale. It’s not easy to measure ocean waves unless you have a jetski riding right on the crest or a LIDAR system on shore which is expensive.
- bix6 1y agoIn water photography is especially wild. Check out Leroy Bellet: https://www.surfertoday.com/surfing/the-story-behind-leroy-bellet-ultimate-pov-photo https://www.surfertoday.com/surfing/the-story-behind-leroy-b... He rides BEHIND surfers in the barrel. Absolutely nuts.
- rognjen 1y agoThis site needs to be banned from HN. It's borderline spam employing every trick in the book to maximise your pageview. Clickbait title, interstitial ads, floating vid, back jacking, newsletter, notification... When I open the page it's only a third that's content -- and that's only the clickbait title. What garbage...
- xp84 1y agoWhile I agree that it's a trash site and an embarrassment to its roots as The Chronicle's website, anyone like yourself who notices how bad it is would do well to take it as a reminder that your adblocker is missing or not working. It appeared as though it were a normal site to me with ublock origin.
- imoverclocked 1y agoMaybe we can just block the actual origin of the ads; No need for excess plugins.
- pitched 1y agoIf the origin of ads is hosting fees, I agree. The internet would a lot more fun if everyone’s side projects persisted forever by default.
- apsurd 1y agoI'm going to read this article because the image is cool and I love California. But I had to comment on how obnoxious this website is with my NextDNS mistakingly disabled. What have we done to the Internet! 3 popups to sign up for paid, newsletter and web alerts. scroll down to see auto playing videos, ridiculous full-banner ads. wow
- jmclnx 1y agoFWIW, I use noscript and had no issues. Granted there were some blank spots which I guess where ads.
- apsurd 1y agoYep, I've found blocking at at the dns level more convenient since I'd otherwise have to install script blockers per web-browser. I'm very happy with nextdns I wanted to add that every time I use the internet without a blocker, it's so depressing to realize this is how a lot of people, mostly older, experience the Internet. Very sad as someone in the industry.
- chrisweekly 1y agoReader mode works wonders for me.
- apsurd 1y agoooh you're right, reader mode is great for this article. thanks It doesn't always work though, I assume the major publishers are employing some counter-measures. Also generally javascript heavy websites.
- c420 1y agoClicking a link within the page in reader mode and then clicking back to reload it almost always works for the stubborn sites IME
- coldpie 1y ago
- jmclnx 1y ago>riding (surfing) a world-record-shattering 108-foot-tall wave. That is rather wild.
- xp84 1y agoImagine being ten stories up on a freakin' wave. People like this guy are just incredible.
- IncreasePosts 1y agoI wonder if people who do things like this and free soloing "just" have some unique wiring in their brain where they don't care about instantaneously dying because of some small mistake they make. Or, is it just a matter of continually ratcheting up the difficulty - "I did a 1 foot wave, why not a 2 foot wave, why not a 3 foot wave, etc"?
- rurban 1y agoThey are just suicidal. I did surf big waves, but certainly not Nazare nor Mavs. That's just too dangerous.
- heckelson 1y agoI know very little about surfing, can I ask why it is so dangerous?
- rurban 1y agoThe biggest danger is being shredded. Why is such a wave so big? Because the coast is extremely shallow suddenly. Normally 1m-50cm, but when a big wave comes, all the water in front of the wave is sucked into it back, which makes it about 10-20cm deep. And it is sucked back really fast, because it is not deep. So if you miss such a wave and fall down, you end up there in the impact zone, which is also the shredding zone. There are either rocks or coral reefs, both extremely unhealthy when being shredded along, even if you still have your board. Normally not. And then you are sucked back into the next wave impact zone with high speed, which is un-nicer, because then you are not just shredded along, but also hit big from above into the ground. Where you usually break some arm or leg, or just hit your head into the rock and then drown. The few people who survive this do have professional help by the jet skiers, who try to catch you before the next impact. Your only chance is to get your board from the leach as soon as you get up, and paddle as fast as possible to the side, across the stream to survive the next impact. It's not interesting at all, pure danger. Like running across a highway without looking.
- bix6 1y agoSurfing is the best! Big ups Alo shaka
- dsalzman 1y agoThere's a series called 100 ft wave on HBO. Great overview of the big wave community.
- throwaheyy 1y agoAlso recommend the documentary Riding Giants.
- strbean 1y agoIt's so surprising that we don't use a precise method of gauging wave height for these records. AFAIK they still estimate the surfers height while riding, and then count those heights up the side of the wave in a photograph. I'd imagine we would have a method closer to surveying techniques by now.
- metalman 1y agothere is a new, exotic method for measuring gigantic waves, that uses atmospheric disturbances to gps signals and gravity waves that ocean waves generate. SWOT https://www.nasa.gov/missions/swot/us-french-swot-satellite-measures-tsunami-after-massive-quake/ https://www.nasa.gov/missions/swot/us-french-swot-satellite-...
- xp84 1y agoThe article appears a few days old since it was before they had the awards. Apparently they had the Big Wave 2025 awards two days ago, and declared that his wave was "only" 76 feet, but he did win the award for Biggest Wave for this year. Source: (also the awards show is embedded here as a video) https://www.coastsidenews.com/review/news/santa-cruz-surfer-s-76-foot-ride-at-mavericks-falls-short-of-record/article_65b05a83-3e67-456b-ab95-abd8d10ef4e0.html https://www.coastsidenews.com/review/news/santa-cruz-surfer-...
- exhilaration 1y agoI know nothing about surfing but I picked up Barbarian Days on Audible https://www.audible.com/pd/Barbarian-Days-Audiobook/B00YMMTOI6 https://www.audible.com/pd/Barbarian-Days-Audiobook/B00YMMTO... and I was captivated. After I finished it I started looking for surf schools within driving distance of my home, still looking for something on the (New) Jersey Shore or Long Island. Anyone have any suggestions?
- bix6 1y agoNot my zone but I saw a few on yelp when I ran a search! Go soon before it gets colder :)
- abe94 1y agohttps://skudinsurf.com/ https://skudinsurf.com/ may have something for you. They also do beginner sessions in a mall - https://skudinsurfamericandream.com/ https://skudinsurfamericandream.com/
- roflyear 1y agogreat book! just took lessons recently with Matt from Lucky Dog Surf School. super chill dude, lots of fun.
- 1024core 1y agoIsn't there a place in Portugal (Nazareth?) which has even more massive waves than Mavericks?
- mindracer 1y agoNazare, there’s a show called 100 foot wave that follows a couple of surfers who ride there https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazaré,_Portugal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazaré,_Portugal
- 1024core 1y agoThanks, yeah, I misremembered the name. But are Mavericks' waves bigger than Nazare? From the photos I've seen, Nazare's waves are truly massive!
- bix6 1y agoNazare definitely maxes higher then Mavs
- sailingparrot 1y agoThey are typically bigger at Nazare, but it all depends on the swell. Its not impossible for Mavericks to receive a swell that could create waves bigger than whatever Nazare has received in the last 20 years, but it's less likely. However Mavericks is definitely the "nicer" and gnarlier wave of the two imho, Nazare is massive but has no shape, so they just surf the shoulder for 5 seconds and kick out. Mavericks has much nicer lines.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- tiagod 1y agoIt's Nazaré (Which is Nazareth in Portuguese.)
- SpicyUme 1y agoI wonder if he would describe himself as a construction worker, or maybe he would say he's a surfer who does construction to make a living? Sometimes you can see a struggle to define a person independent of their jobs, why does it matter here? I see the headline here changed, it used to be: [Calif. construction worker unofficially broke a fabled world record]