The biggest wave ever surfed in history could change hands. Last Friday (19), Rodrigo Augusto do Espírito Santo, from Guaruja, known as Rodrigo Koxa, 46, surfed a wall close to 30 meters high in Praia do Norte, in Nazaré, Portugal, and has a chance of returning to the top of the Guinness World Records. Among women, Michelle de Boullions from Rio believes she broke the female record during the WSL Big Wave Surfing 2024/25, also this month.
The first (unofficial) measurements for the São Paulo wave point to a height of 29.15 m — something like a 10-story building —, higher than that recorded by the German Sebastian Steudtner. On October 29, 2020, the European broke the previous record (held by Koxa himself) by sliding down a peak of 26.21 m.
In contact with SheetKoxa said he had surfed the “wave of life”, not only because of its size, but because of the triangular formation of the phenomenon provided by the enormous force of the Nazaré Canyon. “I surfed it at the peak, I went down to my limit and I felt like aborting several times. It was the wave of my life, with the greatest level of commitment of all. This is the most dangerous wave in the world, it will rip an arm off your body if you catch it badly”, he says. “When I entered the tube, it felt like a time machine sucking me in. A bus could fit inside it.”
Koxa even feared for his own health, due to his proximity to the rocks and the speed he was in the water, around 80 km/h, according to him. But he managed to escape unharmed. “This wave was really special. Much faster than the standard waves in Nazaré. I really appreciate the push from my partner Vitor Faria, because it put me in the perfect place. Otherwise it would have been impossible to have surfed successfully”, he explains.
With this maneuver, the Brazilian emerges as the favorite to win the annual giant wave award, the “Big Wave Challenge”, a competition that should be announced around April, after the giant wave season in Portugal. If the measurement is greater than 26.21 meters, the record must be approved by Guinness.
The current measurement was made by Paulo Vinicius Lopes, designer, filmmaker and surfer. He was the first to analyze Koxa’s wave in 2017, when the São Paulo native entered the Book of Records.
“We’re not sure it will break the record. But it’s the trend if it’s measured correctly. To measure I take the size of the surfer’s shin, analyze where the base and top of the wave are and multiply it. Then, I prepare material and send it to everyone. It was like that in 2017, when we sent it to the WSL”, he reports.
Michelle de Boullions could break Maya’s record
The designer also believes that Michelle de Boullions reached Maya Gabeira’s record of 22.4 meters in 2020. During the WSL, the Rio native came across a monstrous wave, in the first heat of the day (see below).
“It wasn’t just the most gigantic, but the most perfect of recent times. All this perfection made me even more excited. I think yes (it broke the record), it has everything in my favor, it was really big”, says Michelle to Sheet.
In the same competition, the British Laura Crane also caught a wave with the potential to enter the list of the biggest waves surfed. The competitor waits for official measurements.
Measurement criteria generate debates in the world of surfing. The main reference is the surfer’s own body, compared to the size of the swell, based on images and videos. The athlete’s movement is also considered, the route taken, the duration and whether he actually caught the entire wave.
The World Surfing League (WSL) transferred responsibility for measurements to North American Bill Sharp, from the Big Wave Challenge, and the Guinness World Records team. Sharp has already admitted that these recent waves will be analyzed.
The Nazaré Canyon is an underwater ravine of large proportions, around 230 kilometers long and with a depth that can exceed 5,000 meters. Formed by tectonic movements and erosion processes over thousands of years, it intensifies Atlantic waves as they approach the coast, causing a sudden increase in their height, strength and speed.
It is this phenomenon that provides enormous waves, like the ones Michelle and Koxa surfed. Due to such dangerous sea conditions, surfing giant waves in Nazaré is only possible thanks to the so-called “tow-in surfing”, when one athlete is propelled by another on a jet ski. In addition, there is usually another marine vehicle ready to carry out any rescues, while a “spotter” guides the group via radio with a view from outside the water.
With around 15 thousand inhabitants, Nazaré has been transformed thanks to surf tourism and continues to grow rapidly. The city gained notoriety in 2011, when Hawaiian surfer Garrett McNamara surfed a colossal 23.8 meter wave, setting a record at the time, and proved that it was possible to tame these giant walls.
Since then, Nazaré has reinvented itself, growing from the so-called surf tourism — something that Brazilian cities, like Jaguaruna, in Santa Catarina, try to be inspired by. The Portuguese city, however, is incomparable for practicing giant waves, where surfers can wait up to a whole year for ideal conditions to form.
