British big wave charger Tom Butler may have just broken the Guinness World Record for biggest wave ever ridden. On Monday, he told the Guardian a Nazaré bomb he bagged in a December 14th session at Praia do Norte was close to 100 feet.
The record currently belongs to Brazilian Rodrigo Koxa who was towed into an 80-foot monster at Nazaré back in November of 2017. It took the good folks at Guinness World Records until April 2018 to mediate the claim, and Koxa’s feat was made public at the 2018 WSL Big Wave Awards. Here’s Koxa’s wave for comparison.
So whose was bigger? If Koxa’s world record is any indication, we’ll likely have to wait until the 2019 Big Wave Awards in April until Guinness makes it official.
For what it’s worth, Pedro Miranda, who filmed the wave, said Butler’s wave was easily the biggest wave ridden at Nazaré this season. “This is tricky,” said Miranda. “Tommy is a very tall guy, measuring 6ft 2 inches. Any wave ridden by him will always look way smaller than it really is. Not calling this a world record because I don’t like to speculate, but whatever size you think it is, the wave will undoubtedly be bigger once analyzed by the WSL experts. This wave will most likely win the WSL Big Wave Awards this season.”
It’s worth noting that since Garrett McNamara’s 78-foot wave at Nazaré back in 2011, Praia do Norte has served up two of the biggest waves to be ridden and recorded (three if we take Tom Butler’s claim at face value). During this year’s Jaws Challenge, Dave Kalama highlighted the difference between Pe’ahi and Nazaré saying that Pe’ahi may be the most ferocious wave on the planet but Nazaré unquestionably produces the tallest waves in the world.
McNamara’s wave singlehandedly put Nazaré on the map, and since it’s become the place for big wave tow-in surfers to test their mettle.
Butler’s unofficial record comes nearly two years to the day he nearly lost his ear in a horrific wipeout during a Big Wave Tour event at Nazaré.
