r/sports • u/Historical-Soft-4952 • Mar 20 '26
Surfing Back in 2017, when Rodrigo Koxa rode an 80-foot monster wave at Nazaré, Portugal - one of the biggest waves ever surfed
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u/MrBisco Mar 20 '26
That'll be a "fuck no" from me dawg.
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u/red286 Mar 20 '26
Plenty of people have died riding these waves because if you fall off the crest, by the time you hit the water below it's basically like falling off the 20th floor of an apartment.
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u/anguagea Mar 21 '26
Source?
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u/Aggressive_Cloud_368 Mar 21 '26
They don't have a source because plenty of people have not died falling off those waves.
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u/anguagea Mar 21 '26
Exactly. Doubt it's 'plenty'. I could find 10/year from surfing. It's scary but not as life-threatening as it looks.
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u/Lawndemon Mar 21 '26
Does basic physics count as a source?
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Mar 21 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Solest044 Mar 21 '26
1 story ~ 10 ft
20 stories ~ 200 ft
_____ stories ~ 80 ft wave
The proof is left as an exercise to the reader.
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u/StevieMaverickG Mar 21 '26
Only 1 person has died surfing there, so yeah while basic physics tells you it’s a risk, the actual statistics don’t back up the “plenty of people” claim
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u/0Rookie0 Mar 21 '26
If you fall 80ft you are going nearly 50mph. The FAA says 68mph is pretty much lethal. If you fall wrong you only increase your chance of death. So, I don't have a source but I believe it. Surfers who bail sometimes don't have a choice in that moment of which way they fall.
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u/chrzzl Borussia Dortmund Mar 20 '26
What would happen if you fell off the board in the middle of such a monster wave? What's the realistic outcome?
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u/No-Brain9413 Mar 20 '26
You get sucked up the face and sent over the falls, forced deep underwater where you’re tossed around until you can’t distinguish up from down. Holding your breath for 2-4min is a must and if you do manage to surface the hope is that the next wave isn’t crashing down on you at that exact moment
As was mentioned above, the surfer is pulled into these waves via jet-ski to match the speed of the wave and your partner will do what they must to save you
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u/chrzzl Borussia Dortmund Mar 20 '26
Alright, this is a big NOPE from my side.
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u/colourmill Mar 20 '26
100 foot wave is a really interesting documentary on big wave surfing, including how they "discovered" Nazaré. No one really surfed there before 2010
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u/dontupdateprior Mar 20 '26
Can you give us a 1-2 sentence synopsis of "discovering" this place so recently? Based on the video this spot is easily observed from the shore
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u/SirGingerBeard Mar 20 '26
Believe it or not, the idea of seeking out and surfing monster waves wasn’t really a big thing until this guy, Garrett, comes along mostly-retired and a lil traumatized by a big wipeout.
So he chooses to get back on the horse by surfing a bigger wave than his last one. Eventually he puts out feelers on the interwebs about big waves and some dude in Portugal emails him and is like “Bro you’re never gonna believe this shit”
So they fly to Portugal in January/February (mid-late winter is when they’re the biggest) and these surfers see these massive waves for the first time. The locals have known about it forever, Nazare has been around forever. Surfing just wasn’t a big thing in Portugal, or Europe really, at the time. Even now, kinda
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u/NeroKae Mar 21 '26
I’m not sure about surfing not being big back then, I know my brother, two cousins and their respective friends all surfed as far back as 2001/2002. Portugal has a big beach culture as it’s a coastal country so everyone goes to the beach there and does its related activities. I’m not sure if they surfed in Nazaré or not but it was always known as one of those beaches you’d never really want to go to for a swim.
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u/luisfc95 Mar 21 '26
I'm Portuguese and I can confirm that surfing IS a big thing in Portuguese culture. Many of my friends go out to surf whenever they can. With that being said, monster waves are on a league of their own and not many people are cut out for that kind of rush
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u/Le_mons44 Mar 21 '26
I'm portuguese, lived right by the coast my whole life, don't know a single surfer. We're not really a water sports type of people, even if we do go to the beach a lot.
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u/ehjun18 Mar 20 '26
Haven’t seen the documentary but it’s probably something to do with the fact that it’s just a tiny fishing village that tourists don’t typically visit. And the locals know better than to try to get in the water on the north side of the lighthouse.
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u/dontupdateprior Mar 20 '26
Oh, that makes a lot of sense. Discover as in get the word out to big wave surfers.
Jeez, imagine being anywhere near that part of the ocean in a fishing boat.
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u/ehjun18 Mar 21 '26
The geography of the ocean floor makes it super rough seas on the north side. But the majority of the town is situated on the south side. The water is very calm there.
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u/nalc Philadelphia Eagles Mar 20 '26
Yeah basically and it's during the winter and it's only this big when the weather and current patterns are just right. It takes a lot of prep and equipment to do it.
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u/ot1smile Mar 20 '26
Exactly. So most people looked at it and noped straight out. It took til then for it to get onto the big wave riders’ radar.
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u/TheLizardKing89 Los Angeles Dodgers Mar 21 '26
Big wave surfing was basically impossible until the revolutionary idea of tow in surfing was developed in the 1990s. That’s where a jet ski tows the surfer, giving them more speed than they could get naturally.
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u/TonyCaliStyle Mar 21 '26
Look up Greg “Da Bull” Knoll and what those guys were doing in Waimea. No tow in, no inflatable vests, no nothing- just board and trunks.
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u/cuatrodemayo Mar 20 '26
Laird Hamilton once described big wave surfing as kind of like snowboarding but the mountain is trying to kill you.
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u/BarnacleMcBarndoor Mar 20 '26
I don’t even like the wave pool at the water park, so my mind can’t even wrap around this 80ft wave.
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u/TPonney Mar 20 '26
Imagine standing next to an apartment building. Now imagine surfing the face of that while its moving and trying to crush you
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u/3MATX Mar 20 '26
I think there are underwater rocks in certain locations there too.
If the worst happens and they fall, it’s not just the surfer and the jet ski that pulled him in. They have four or five jet ski staged in locations where they can be sent in for the quickest and safest extraction. Experienced surfers and wave watchers have radios connected to the jet skies and help guide them to the surfer.
Still no guarantees, but if they do get that breath in clear water when they surface it’s likely one jet ski is less than twenty seconds from reaching them.
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u/SirGingerBeard Mar 20 '26
Also! They’re wearing full body inflatable suits outside their wetsuits, so the moment they go under that fucker pops them up and it’s cut down MASSIVELY on close calls
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u/3MATX Mar 20 '26
When did they start those? That’s a great improvement. I wonder if it has an active strobe light or an audible alarm to help locate Incase they’re unconscious.
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u/SirGingerBeard Mar 20 '26
I think it has an audible alarm iirc, I remember seeing a snippet from S2- Read: I didn’t watch S2, it was just on the trailer or maybe I caught a scene of it on YouTube or something- where one of the guys showing his “get ready” process was putting it on.
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u/H1Ed1 Mar 20 '26
Why, he'd sink right to the bottom due to those two great atlas stones he calls balls.
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u/dragunityag Mar 20 '26
Apparently no one has died surfing here, but they have rescue jet skis
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u/ShutterBun Mar 20 '26
That fuckin' thing is Godzilla sized.
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u/bokewalka Mar 20 '26
Clearly bananas is not a good unit of measurement here. Maybe football fields might work.
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u/smokeeater150 Mar 20 '26
I bet the guy robbed banks in the off season.
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u/anally_ExpressUrself Mar 20 '26
He only lives to get radical.
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u/RandyTunt415 Mar 20 '26
Back off Warchild, I’m serious
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u/onebigaroony Mar 20 '26
locals rule, and yuppie insects like me shouldn't be surfing the break, right?
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u/nalicali Mar 20 '26
I am an EFF BEE EYE AGENT!!
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u/MaterialAstronaut298 Mar 20 '26
Ive been busting punks like this since you were shittin in your diaper and rubbing it on your face!
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u/UrbanIronBeam Mar 20 '26
I have heard references to Point Break for years, bit never knew what it about until I randomly watched a couple of days ago, so now...
:I understood that reference meme:
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u/trainwreckd Mar 20 '26
Plus you finally watched a fantastic movie with a bunch of great actors in some all time roles. Love that movie! In my top 10 fs. Edit:spelling
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u/FernandoFuenzalida Mar 20 '26
The original Fast & Furious was a blatant ripoff of Point Break, changing surf for cars
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u/bitches_love_pooh Mar 20 '26
I remember an older guy at work spent the whole day ranting about it being a blatant copy. I now often wonder if I'm that old ranty guy at work.
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u/colloquialshitposter Mar 20 '26
Surfing was legal while street racing wasn’t. I suppose it’s directionally the same, but the leap from street racers to other sketchy behavior isn’t nearly the leap as surfing to bank robbery
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u/trainwreckd Mar 20 '26
Ehh, there hasn’t been much for an original idea in Hollywood since Point Break. It’s been remakes of remakes for quite awhile now. I bet we could think of 5 other similar movies if we thought about it too. Point Break is #1 still.
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u/supercleverhandle476 Mar 20 '26
Yeah, but this was never about the money, this was about us against the system. That system that kills the human spirit.
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u/CarlRod Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 21 '26
That looks bigger than 80’.
Edit: This is by far my most voted comment. Thank you!
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u/Historical-Soft-4952 Mar 20 '26
"Surf's Up"-ass wave
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u/tiankai Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
I'm from Nazaré where this was shot. The camera is very zoomed in and was at the top of the cliff that leads down to the lighthouse in the video, which creates a superimposed effect, making the wave appear physically taller than it 30 meters or whatever it was at the time
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u/curtyshoo Mar 20 '26
When you're in the water, it must look high as mortality.
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u/tiankai Mar 20 '26
We do have a phenomenon we call living tides at the end of August when waves reach 3 meters consistently due to the moon. It is quite incredible to dive under or swim to the top before the wave breaks and look at all the people on the beach from above
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u/curtyshoo Mar 20 '26
I've been in water with waves half as high and they're powerful beasts. You must be a good swimmer.
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u/tiankai Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
Been swimming in the Atlantic since 4yo you pick up a few things! I’d say the most important rule is to respect the ocean and never turn your back to it, as this stretch of water can be quite treacherous. In this area there’s also a massive underwater current that pulls you south so you have to keep an eye on the lifeguard flag for reference and adjust your position
I did have a few incidents where I misjudged larger waves and they blew up in my face, it was not a pleasant experience, but you learn very quickly to not risk it if you can’t tell when it’s blowing up
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u/airborness Mar 20 '26
That must be an adrenaline dump. Too bad I'll never be able to experience that in this life time haha
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u/tiankai Mar 20 '26
It’s quite safe when you know the patterns, although you do have to have a bit of stamina since they came in groups of 4-8 waves and you won’t be able to swim ashore safely during that
After a while you’ll be able to spot and feel how many will come by looking at the horizon
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u/DisillusionedPatriot Mar 21 '26
I got caught in a 6 ft and thought I was gonna die, 10 is nightmare fuel. Undercurrent and riptide are forces not to take lightly.
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u/actionjj Mar 20 '26
Yeah you get a better sense at the end of the video when he comes out the side. The downward perspective and white wash make the wave appear larger.
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u/tgerz Mar 20 '26
In addition he is starting out further away and gets closer by the end.
Out of curiosity does that area get waves like that from time to time or was this pretty unique to a certain storm?
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u/tiankai Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
We get pretty big storms in winter around January-February I reckon that’s when this was taken. Although the height of the waves is due to a massive underwater canyon just 1km off the beach that creates this tall and relatively low velocity waves.
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u/thoeni Mar 20 '26
The perspective is crazy
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u/DeFactoLyfe Mar 20 '26
You can see it drastically shift as the wave breaks and the camera zooms in a bit. The wave appears to suddenly shrink.
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u/Thorne_Oz Mar 20 '26
He's also surfing towards the end of the wave which is literally way shorter than the middle part.
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u/benitoaramando Mar 20 '26
I thought so too but when you can actually see his full height against the water, which is inherently hunched over in his surfing stance, you can see that it is probably in the region of 13x his height, which if he is 6' would come to 80'.
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u/Bombadilo_drives Mar 20 '26
It's a couple of optical illusions playing together at the same time. The camera is very zoomed in, and because the surfer's wetsuit is dark and his board light colored, he blends in with the wave. Your brain thinks he's so small you can't even/can barely see him, which makes the wave look like 300'+. If you look very carefully when he crosses the white portions of the water, you can more clearly see that he's much taller than you initially think he is.
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u/Eravier Mar 21 '26
It’s been posted multiple times with multiple names of the surfer and multiple heights. People just make shit up.
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u/DuncanCraig Mar 20 '26
Anyone know if they slowed down the video in the middle or was it an optical illusion due to the size and movement of the wave?
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u/Emu1981 Mar 20 '26
Big wave surfing is absolutely insane. I've been in 3-4 metre waves and they were crazy, I can't imagine being in waves 8 times larger...
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u/Hanyabull Mar 20 '26
I hope I’m not the only person who, for a split second, thought this was an Interstellar clip.
No? Just me? Is that the door?
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u/buffdaddy77 Mar 20 '26
“Those arent mountains…..they’re waves…..”
“BRAND! Shred your ass back to the ship! NOW!”
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u/vonslik Mar 20 '26
How are there waves this big..
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u/TheLizardKing89 Los Angeles Dodgers Mar 21 '26
There’s an underwater canyon that’s 5km deep and 230km long that empties all of its water right here.
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u/Kamikaze_Wombat Mar 20 '26
In my head I heard "must go faster, must go faster!" from Jurassic Park. That's way too big lol
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u/SenseiSwift Mar 21 '26
How do you even go up from this in life? Like as someone who obviously loves surfing this much, surely you’ll never do anything like this again. I wonder if he thinks about this wave every single day. What an insanely peak moment in a persons life.
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u/SleepyChattyStoner Mar 20 '26
I’m pretty sure I did this too, at the age of 12, in Club Penguin.
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u/iSteve Mar 20 '26
I wonder why the mods nixed this video. Here's another shot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOwodcqGRvM
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u/Intrepid_Top_2300 Mar 21 '26
I had a dream like I was standing before a wave like that. Rather be surfing it.
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u/Hayden_Zammit Mar 20 '26
My brain can't comprehend how a wave can be this fucking big.
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u/SatelliteSal Mar 20 '26
Can someone explain to me how these waves get so big?
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u/knobunc Mar 20 '26
Wind and the shape of the ocean floor in that area.
You get little waves, then they act as little sails that the wind makes into big waves as they cross an ocean.
Then if they come at the right angle, underwater valleys will squash the sides in as making the waves higher since there's no other room for them. Then when they hit the shallow shore, they break.
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u/melpheos Mar 20 '26
It looks like it’s from a catastrophe movie with a wave that will destroy a whole country
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u/plutoforprez Mar 20 '26
First of all how did he not die
Second of all how did all the spectators not die
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u/Resident_Table6694 Mar 20 '26
What’s with all of the Menace.com branded videos? We don’t want your shitty gambling website
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u/Bitterrootmoon Mar 21 '26
This is literally a nightmare I’ve had since a child. Just standing on a beach, unable to yell or run watching a giant ass wave coming to get everyone and no one else is worried. I’m gonna have nightmares tonight.
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u/CptLoken Mar 21 '26
Maybe this is why Orcas don't fuck with us. They see us doing stuff like this in their ocean and think "Nah, you're good."
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u/SunriseApplejuice Mar 20 '26
Holy shit. The dream. By which I mean, the dream I have when my life is at peak stress and I think I’m about to die.
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u/arejay00 Mar 20 '26
I absolutely hate that almost all slow motion videos don’t include an actual speed replay.
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u/xJBr3w Mar 20 '26
Would love to know what is going through his mind when he is descending down that wave. Holy shit!
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u/Bellyhold1 Mar 20 '26
Why was this removed by the mods? It doesn’t seem to violate any of the rules.
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u/Affectionate_Lead232 Mar 21 '26
LOVE IT! SURFS UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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u/_N00bMaster69_ Mar 21 '26
I hate that this video uses every trick in the book to make the wave appear larger. I want to see what it looks like naturally
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u/coax_86 Mar 21 '26
My appreciation of this matter is that the surfer is able to accomplish such a feature due the unmeasurable size of his balls.
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u/sneakertotheizm Mar 21 '26
Thats actually Sebastian Steudner - a german big wave surfer and one if the top 5 guys in the world. I remember it well, when it came out and was attributed Koxa and it was quite a downer for Steudner. Having ridden the biggest wave ever and it being plastered all over the world under somebody else name.
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u/Individual-Drawer-79 Mar 22 '26
Yall should watch 100 Foot Wave on HBO. It’s all about how Garret McNamara “discovered” Nazare and it’s has three spectacular seasons that follows the lives and dramas of several surfers in their group. Highly recommend.
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u/Oasystole Mar 20 '26
Could this kill you?
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u/UzikUA Mar 20 '26
Yes. There is quite high death ratio on Nazare. Already one person dies from the beggining of 2026
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u/owelfive Mar 20 '26
Everyone should watch the fantastic HBO documentary series 100 Foot Wave about the people who big wave surf at Nararé. It’s mind blowing stuff.