"At an awards ceremony Saturday night, 24-year-old Santa Cruz surfer Alessandro Alo Slebir will finally find out if he set a new world record while riding the towering wave at Mavericks last winter and whether he captured the Holy Grail of surfdom: a 100-foot wave. The record to break is an 86-foot wave ridden by a German surfer at Nazare, Portugal, in 2020. Early, unofficial estimates put Slebir's at 108 feet. Making big wave history would be awesome, Slebir said. If not, I got to ride the tallest wave of my life and I'll never forget it."
"That swell at Mavericks, a half mile off the coast of Half Moon Bay, hit two days before Christmas, on the same day and amid the same storm that destroyed the Santa Cruz Wharf. The waves were so big they created their own wind and blew out the settling fog. Slebir's descent was so dangerous, so hallowed to the surfing community, that videos of it have been set to requiems for the souls of the dead. I just definitely remember the feeling of the wave sucking up behind me, and that alone just gave me the sense that I knew it was going to be the biggest wave that I've ever ridden, he said. I never felt that on a surfboard."
"A photogrammetry analysis that is more Pythagorean Theorem and less artificial intelligence will determine whether the wave will make the history books as the largest ever ridden. The viral, international attention Slebir's ride received and the potential for it to make the Guinness World Records is re-animating the surfing world, casting a fresh glow on the local surfing spot, and renewing a sense of nostalgia for the local surfboard shaper who discovered these colossal waves 50 years ago."
Alessandro Alo Slebir, 24, rode a towering wave at Mavericks last winter that may exceed the 86-foot world record; early, unofficial estimates put the wave at 108 feet. An awards ceremony will determine official status via photogrammetry analysis relying on geometric measurement. The Mavericks swell struck two days before Christmas amid the storm that destroyed the Santa Cruz Wharf, producing waves so large they created their own wind and cleared fog. Videos of Slebir’s descent circulated widely and drew intense attention. The potential Guinness World Records recognition has energized the surfing community, revitalized the local break’s reputation, and evoked nostalgia for the shaper who discovered the waves decades earlier.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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