The biggest wave conquered by a surfer. The biggest wave in the world: still ahead
In December 2004, a photo of the biggest wave in the world spread around all the publications of the world. On December 26, an earthquake occurred in Asia, which resulted in a tsunami wave that killed more than 235,000 people.
The media published photos of the destruction, assuring readers and viewers that there has never been a big wave in the world. But the journalists were cunning... Indeed, in terms of its destructive power, the tsunami of 2004 is one of the deadliest. But the magnitude (height) of this wave is quite modest: it did not much exceed 15 meters. History knows higher waves, about which one can say: “Yes, this is the biggest wave in the world!”
Waves-record holders
Where are the biggest waves
Scientists are sure that the highest waves are not caused by earthquakes (because of them, tsunamis are more often formed), but by ground collapses. That's why high waves are most often:
… And other killer waves
Not only giant waves are dangerous. There is a more terrible variety: single killer waves. They come from nowhere, their height rarely exceeds 15 meters. But the pressure that they exert on all the objects they meet exceeds 100 tons per centimeter (ordinary waves "press" with a force of only 12 tons). These waves are practically not studied. It is only known that she crumples oil rigs and ships like a sheet of ordinary paper.
And his impressions of the fall. One can easily imagine that without proper training, riding many waves, if not costing a life, then threatens with serious injuries. TransWorld SURF magazine was puzzled by the search for the most dangerous waves in the world and offered its ten of those that should be left only to professionals of the appropriate level.
Map of the most dangerous waves in the world (TransWorld SURF version)
Pipeline (Banzai Pipeline)
Located on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, the Pipeline is without a doubt the most powerful and deadly wave in the world. Trumpeting powerful left and right (Backdoor) waves break near the shore over a coral reef with many cracks.
Unsuccessful start on the Pipeline. Photo: Brian Bielman
Over the years, Pipeline has claimed the lives of more people than all other spots combined. The dead included local bodyboarder Joshua Nakata in March 2008, renowned aquatic photographer John Mozo in February 2005, Tahiti professional surfer Malik Joex in December 2005, Japanese professional surfer Moto Watanabe in January 2004, and experienced Puerto Rican surfer Joaquin Veliya in January. 2007. The list of victims goes on…
Ironically, the most dangerous days on the Pipeline are not those when the forecast is at its worst, but when the swell builds up quickly and the waves begin to rise sharply closer to the shore over the inner part of the shallow reef. Despite the well-known danger, Pipeline remains one of the most crowded lineups in the world. According to the Pipeline Master title holder: “On the Pipeline, you are always on the edge of the knife. You are always hanging by a thread. You're never in complete control of a situation."
Ghost Trees
Located off Pebble Beach in northern California, this wave is teeming and colder than most spots in the world. Throw in the huge boulders that dot the beach and bottom, and you get an idea of California's most dangerous wave.
Alistair Craft on the wave. Photo: Nelly
This deadly right hand wave, usually requiring towing on a jet ski, recently claimed the life of renowned California surfer Peter Davi. It takes gigantic size to make it work, and when it does, the Ghost Tree accumulates the enormous energy of the North Pacific Ocean, and the wave height can reach 80 feet (25 meters) with 20 foot sections of bubbling water, disfiguring wave wall. recent find, Ghost Trees attracts only the most experienced of bigwave surfers.
Mavericks (Mavericks)
Imagine yourself as a young Jeff Clark walking home from school every day along the bluffs of Half Moon Bay in northern California and looking at this giant right hand wave a few hundred meters from the shore. The wind is howling, the air is cold, the water temperature is approaching freezing, and great white sharks the size of a school bus roam underwater.
Locale from California Ben Andrews on Mavericks. Photo: Jack English
In 1994, the Mavericks claimed the life of legendary bigwave surfer Mark Fu. The heavy crest of the wave is infamous for its brutal power. A wave can crush you under water and drive you into boulders the size of a house, besides, shark attacks happen here. A wave can be sheer and sharp, and when people talk about a freight train on water, that's what they mean.
Teahupoo
Rated as one of the toughest waves in the world, Teahupu is located on the southwestern tip of Tahiti, the main island of the archipelago. French Polynesia. An insanely heavy left wave is half a mile from the shore and a few tens of centimeters above a live, razor-sharp reef.
Even the best can make mistakes. Bruce Irons. Photo: Jones
What makes Teahupoo unique is the special nature of the wave - during a big wave it looks like the ocean is leaning over itself, and not like a normal wave. Teahupu, or Kumbaya as it used to be known, ended the life of a Tahitian surfer, Bris Terea, who, while trying to dive a 12-foot monster, was picked up by a wave crest and thrown onto a reef below. Nicknamed "The World's Heaviest Wave", Teahupu lives up to its nickname every time the huge southwest swell hits Tahiti. Another scary fact: in translation, Teahupu means something like “tear off the head,” which is associated with local tribal wars that happened here hundreds of years ago.
Waimea
The northern coast of the island of Oahu is crammed with world-class waves, and not far from the Pipeline is the bay in which the grandfather of them all, Waimea, “rests”. While the boom of tau-in surfing is shifting the focus of big wave surfers towards reefs located far from the coast, Waimea is still a litmus test for big waves around the world. Life threatening, Waimea has set the standard for big wave surfing for 40 years, and the honor competition is one of the most respected surf events in the world and is only held if the swell is at least 25 feet high.
Bruce Irons on Waimea. Photo: Checkwood
With a combination of shattering shorebreak and 60-foot waves, Waimea claimed the lives of Dickie Cross in 1943 and California pro surfer Donny Solomon in 1999. Legendary surfer Titus Kinimaka broke his hip after a bad wipe out in 1989. As Hawaiian pro surfer/shaper Dennis Pang said of Waimea wipeouts, “On the Pipeline, when you're underwater, everything is white, but on Sunset it's gray. Waimea is black.
Shipstern Bluff
If there is a wave that could be a mirror image of Teahupoo, it is Shipstern Bluff, located in the south of Tasmania. The wave can be reached either by a two-hour walk through National Park Tasmania, or a long and bumpy boat ride from the nearest port.
Australian surfer Lauri Towner on Shipstern Bluff. Photo: Jones
The bottom of Shipstern is a granite slab that takes the blows of giant swells that travel from the deep part of the ocean and splash out all their energy on this reef. The wave appears right in front of the cape littered with boulders, which adds even more risk to an already almost impossible start. Add to that the fact that you will have to wear a 4/3 wetsuit and surf shoes almost all year round, and you can guess that only the most frostbitten guys ride this wave.
Dungeons (Dungeons)
Located on the coast South Africa near Hout Bay (Cape Town), Dungeance not only offers the danger of one of the most serious waves on the planet, but is located in the area with the most big amount in the world.
Mark Healey free fall to Dungeons. Photo: property of Red Bull BWA
It so happened that Northern part The coast of Cape Town is a haven for thousands of seals who have chosen a small island as their home. Surrounding the area is a slew of great white sharks, just waiting for the seals to enter the "death zone" that includes the area around the island. These sharks are also known throughout the world for their manner of attacking victims, grabbing them from below and flying out of the water.
In addition to this danger, Dungeance is known for near-freezing water temperatures, huge underwater boulders and forces that can keep you under water for longer than anywhere else in the world. Given that this spot takes its name from a local surfer who has been underwater for two consecutive 25ft giants, it's easy to see why this right hand wave has been the venue for Red Bull's bigwave competition since 2000. Plus, the only way to get to the wave is by boat, so it's best to be among the top jet ski teams before heading to Dungeons.
Cyclops (Cyclops)
On our list, Cyclops is the least broken wave, and for good reason. Located opposite the Esperance coast in Western Australia(7 hours from Persian), Cyclops is only accessible by boat. Although still new to the world's surf radar, this wave has the heaviest and largest crest in the world.
Duckdive on Cyclops? No options! Photo: Scott
The difference in depth here is colossal, and when the giant swells come, they unleash all their power on the razor-sharp coral reef. This causes Cyclops to form a wave unlike any other in the world, practically swallowing itself. The Cyclops earned its name for its oval trumpets, which are produced when a thick crest hits a reef. But not every wave here is perfect, for the most part it is so shapeless that you can easily put it in your pants. Even if you manage to find the right spot, good luck with the start and the shallow death reef below.
Aurs (Ours)
In New South Wales (Australia) there is a wave so tough that even Pancho Sullivan once admitted that he did not want to have anything to do with it. Sheltered in Karnelsky National Park, Aurs is a steep fast powerful right wave crashing against a huge rock. Even if you manage to start, which most likely will not work, you will have to drive at full speed through a pipe that wants to tear you to pieces. And if you fail to get out of the pipe, you will be nailed to the cliff, which we have already mentioned. it's the same favorite place for the notorious Bra-boys; so if they're on the water, which only happens when it's pumping, you don't want to be there. If the wave doesn't kill you, then the locals can.
Wave Aurs. Photo: Jones
New Smyrna
Compared to the other waves on our list, New Smyrna is child's play when it comes to wave strength and energy, despite being one of the best in Florida. When it pumps, it can be one of the top spots in the region, but on the other hand, everyone knows about it.
Locale on New Smyrna. Photo: Dorsey
So, one wonders, why did this spot make it to our list? Well, we have 18 reasons why New Smyrna is here, and they can all be summed up in one word -. Dubbed the "Shark Attack Capital of the World", New Smyrna had 18 attacks in 2008, which is within the normal range for a place where attacks occur all year round.
Located in the southern part of Ponce Bay, New Smyrna is famous for its fishing, which also means that sharks are somewhere nearby. And since most of the attacks are carried out by the bull shark, one of the most dangerous in the world, you are practically risking your life by riding this wave.
Waves driven by the wind and breaking near the shore are one of those things that you can look at forever. Especially if their height is so record-breaking that the water can cover you to your full height. There is a special place on our planet where you can observe the highest waves regularly.
Nazare - fishing village with giant waves
In Portugal, on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, there is a small village of Nazare. This is a real fishing village, founded in the 16th century, where about 10 thousand inhabitants live.
The village is colorful, with beautiful sandy beaches(according to some reports, the best in Portugal), with good-natured residents, who can still be found in bright traditional attire. There is even a fisherman's museum here, and besides this, other attractions: the Church of Our Lady, the Sitio quarter with a stunning panorama, a 900-year-old chapel and a lighthouse. But this is not what travelers come here for. The fact is that here the waves are of gigantic height, on which surfers set world records.
Therefore, everyone who loves surfing simply needs to visit this place. And also for those who want to look at the raging elements, because nothing fascinates like the ocean, its strength and power.
Waves that break records
IN summer time Nazare is like a classic resort: heat, sea, beach with many tourists. But the fun here does not stop even in winter: real extreme people and lovers of gawking come here, and swimming here at this time is a real killer. It is in winter that the surfer season begins: waves near the coast reach 25-30 meters in height.
For the first time the town was brought to popularity by the Hawaiian surfer Garrett McNamara. He came to Nazare to skateboard. It was here that he conquered the world's largest wave on a sandy bottom. Its height was 24 meters. A couple of years later, the surfer returned and broke his own record, this time the wave reached 30 meters. After that, the lighthouse in Nazar was turned into a museum named after Garrett McNamara. The main exhibit here is the same board produced by Mercedes Benz, on which the world record was set.
Why such big waves?
In fact, such waves are quite rare (of course, if we are not talking about tsunamis or killer waves). However, in reality, everything is explained quite easily. The fact is that the village is located next to the largest underwater gorge in Europe - Nazare Canyon. And this gorge is actually huge: it stretches for about 170 kilometers in length, and the most deep point canyon - 5 thousand meters from the surface.
There is a place in the world from which photos and video reports about giant waves are often taken. For the past few years, records in Big Wave surfing for the largest wave taken (both by hand and with the help of a jet) have been set on the same Nazaré wave. The first such record was set by Hawaiian surfer Garrett McNamara in 2011 - the wave height was 24 meters. Then, in 2013, he broke his record by riding a wave 30 meters high.
Why exactly in this place are the biggest waves in the world?
Let's first recall the mechanism of wave formation:
So, it all starts far, far away in the ocean, where the wind blows strong winds and storms rage. As we know from the school geography course, the wind blows from an area with high pressure to an area of low pressure. In the ocean, these areas are separated by many kilometers, so the wind blows over very large area ocean, transferring part of its energy to the water due to the force of friction. Where it happens, the ocean is more like a bubbling soup - have you ever seen a storm at sea? It's about the same there, only the scale is larger. There are small and large waves, all mixed up, superimposed on each other. However, the energy of water also does not stand still, but moves in a certain direction.
Due to the fact that the ocean is very, very large, and waves of different sizes move at different speeds, during the time that all this seething porridge reaches the shore, it is “sifted”, some small waves add up to others into large ones, others, on the contrary, mutually are destroyed. As a result, what is called Groung Swell comes to the shore - smooth ridges of waves, divided into sets from three to nine with large intervals of calm between them.
However, not every swell is destined to become surfing waves. Although, it is more correct to say - not everywhere. In order for a wave to be caught, it must break in a certain way. Wave formation for surfing depends on the structure of the bottom in the coastal zone. The ocean is very deep, so the mass of water moves evenly, but as it approaches the coast, the depth begins to decrease, and the water that moves closer to the bottom, for lack of another way out, begins to rise to the surface, thereby raising waves. In the place where the depth, or rather shallowness, reaches a critical value, the rising wave can no longer become larger and collapses. The place where this happens is called the lineup, and that's where the surfers sit, waiting for the right wave.
The shape of the wave directly depends on the shape of the bottom: the sharper it becomes shallow, the sharper the wave. Usually the sharpest and even trumpeting waves are born where the height difference is almost instantaneous, for example, at the bottom of a huge stone or the beginning of a reef plateau.
Photo 2. 
Where the drop is gradual and the bottom is sandy, the waves are gentler and slower. It is these waves that are best suited for learning to surf, so all surf schools conduct the first lessons for beginners on sandy beaches.
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Of course, there are other factors that affect the waves, for example, the same wind: it can improve or worsen the quality of the waves depending on the direction. In addition, there are so-called wind swells, these are waves that do not have time to “sift” with distance, since the storm rages not so far from the coast.
So, now about the highest waves. Thanks to the winds, huge energy is accumulated, which then moves towards the coast. As it approaches the coast, the oceanic swell transforms into waves, but unlike other places on our planet, a surprise awaits it off the coast of Portugal.
Photo 4. 
The thing is that it is in the area of the city of Nazare that the seabed is a huge canyon with a depth of 5000 meters and a length of 230 kilometers. This means that the oceanic swell does not undergo changes, but reaches, as it is, to the very continent, collapsing on the coastal rocks with all its might. Wave height is usually measured as the distance from the crest to the base (where, by the way, something like a trough is often sucked in, which increases the height compared to if measured by mean sea level at a given tide height).
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However, unlike such waves as Mavericks or Teahupu, on Nazar the ridge, even if it collapses, never hangs over the base, moreover, about 40 meters separate it from the bottom point along the horizontal axis. Due to spatial perspective distortion, when viewed from the front, we see a water block of 30 meters, technically, it is even larger, but this is not a wave height. That is, strictly speaking, Nazaré is not a wave, but a water mountain, a pure oceanic swell, powerful and unpredictable.
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However, the fact that Nazaré is not exactly a wave does not make this spot any less scary and dangerous. Garrett McNamara says that Nazar is incredibly difficult to pass. Usually three people help him in the water: one pulls him out on a jet to the lineup, accelerates him into a wave and does not swim far to make sure that everything is in order with the surfer. He is backed up by a second jet, as well as a third one a little further away, whose driver is watching all three. Also, Garrett's wife is standing on a rock near the lighthouse and tells him on the radio which waves are coming and which one can be taken. On the day he set his second record, not everything went smoothly. The first driver was knocked off the jet by a wave, so the second had to pull Garrett out of the foam, and the third hurried to help the first. Everything was done clearly and quickly, so no one was hurt.
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Garrett himself says the following: “Of course, all these safety nets and technical devices in surfing on big waves are a kind of cheating. And in principle, you can do without them, but in this case, the chances of dying are much higher. As for me personally, since I had a wife and children, I feel more responsibility for them and fear for my life, so I go to all technical tricks in order to most likely return home alive. ”
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5 most famous surf spots where the legendary huge waves come
The biggest
waves of the world
5 most famous surf spots,
where the legendary go
huge waves
Waves most often calm and fascinate the person watching them. Just imagine: the beach, the setting sun is drowning in the ocean waves, one after another running white foam on the golden sand. Idyll, you say. Now imagine: strong gusts of wind, a cooling breeze and a huge 30-meter wave that has grown right in front of you in a matter of seconds. “Idyll,” big wave surfers will say. Today we will talk about the most famous spots with big waves: how and where these ocean Hulks appear and who hunts them.
Mavericks, California
Perhaps these giant waves have become the most popular and familiar even to people who are far from surfing, and all thanks to the film Conquerors of the Waves (2012), which tells the real story of the young surfer Jay Moriarty, who conquered those same Mavericks. But now is not about that. The spot got its name back in 1967, when three surfer friends came to ride on an unnamed spot. With them was a dog - a German shepherd named Maverick, who loved to swim next to the guys. Leaving the dog on the shore, they took a boat to the line-up, but the dog still went after them. The boat had to be turned around to tie Maverick tighter - the weather had deteriorated badly, and it was not safe for the dog to be in the water. In terms of skiing, that day was not successful: the guys surfed close to the shore, and the giant waves rising far in the ocean seemed very dangerous to them. Returning to the shore, they decided to name the place after the dog, who was much more fortunate that day.
Since then, the small town of Half Moon Bay in southern California has become a mecca for surfers who do not know life without deadly waves. But not for everyone. For many years the spot was a great secret, jealously guarded only by the elect. And all the rumors about the Mavericks were more like crazy nonsense. Only in the 90s, thanks to Surfer Magazine, the spot received wide publicity and became a magnet for everyone to stare and break in killer waves.
These waves acquire such power due to the unique bottom topography: at a distance of about one and a half kilometers from the shore, the reef has depressions that, like a pump, pump up the wave with an additional volume of water coming from other deep-sea reefs. But this is only a “meeting a good friend on the threshold”: the waves themselves form long before approaching the coast of California. Mavericks in their pristine state are the echoes of storms in the nearby North Pacific. Overcoming a distance of 320 km (ideal), the waves move south, driven by the westerly wind. Another important component for a large Maverick is the period with which the swell waves come to the reefs, this period should exceed 16 seconds. When all factors add up, a huge 25-meter wall rises in front of you.
Nazare, Portugal
The waves of Nazare "feed" on strong Atlantic storms, reaching a height of more than 30 m.
Who would have thought that an ordinary fishing village would instantly become a surfer center of attraction? And all thanks to the recently opened spot of the same name with truly frightening waves. As in the case of the Mavericks, it plays into the hands of surfers deep canyon Nazaré ("Canhão da Nazaré"). This is the largest underwater gorge in Europe, stretching along the coast for 170 km. In some places, the width of the Nazare canyon reaches 5 km, and the depth is about 300 m. The waves of Nazare “feed” on strong Atlantic storms, the swells of which move to Europe. The canyon, like an arrow pointing straight to the beach of Praia do Norte, increases the power of the wave, and a sharp drop in depth between the gorge and the reef allows the waves to grow in height, reaching 30 m, and sometimes even more. There are plenty of madmen who have conquered such giants. Take, for example, the holder of the Guinness record, the American Garrett McNamaru, who in 2011 rode a wave 23.7 meters high. And after 2 years, he increased his success by conquering, all in the same Nazar, a 30-meter giant. The deadly storm "Saint Jude" helped the Brazilian Carlos Burle outrun McNamara by 1.5 meters. By the way, Burle's girlfriend, big wave surfer Maya Gabeira, almost lost her life after falling off a giant wave in Nazar.
Jaws, Hawaii
The Hawaiian spot Jaws (Jaws) on the northern coast of the island of Maui is happy to open its “mouth” for everyone from November to March. This name was dubbed by local surfers in 1975 in honor of the just-released blockbuster of the same name by Steven Spielberg. The waves rising here really look like the unpredictable behavior of a shark: suddenly, quite a friendly wave can turn into an 18-meter monster. The Jaws arrive thanks to the storms of the Pacific Ocean's rich big-wave entertainment. These high, fast and powerful waves attract town-in-surfers i.e. those who get on the wave with the help of towing on a jet ski. By the way, this method was invented at the Jaws spot in the 1980s. Jaws arise thanks to an underwater ridge that appeared as a result of a volcanic eruption. The ridge slows down fast moving swell, driven by sharp gusts of wind, and the reef, concentrating all this mass, brings it down in a certain place. In the same place where the XXL Big Wave Awards will be held on May 1st.
Tahiti
Spot Teahupu (or rather, in the local dialect, the name is pronounced as "Chopu") is located in the southwest of the main island of French Polynesia - Tahiti in pacific ocean. In translation, the name sounds like “tear off your head” and fully justifies itself. Of course, it appeared as a result of bloody tribal wars that happened in these parts hundreds of years ago. But today it does not lose its relevance. And all because giant heavy waves rise 500 meters from the shore and collapse on reefs slightly covered by shallows, sharp as a thousand knives. This is the merit of a strong southwestern swell, carrying a left wave, and the unique semicircular "jagged" relief of the reef, sheerly going down, allows it to show itself in all its insidious heavy beauty. It seems that giants just grow out of nowhere.
Rhys Wartenberg
Surfer, traveler
“When I got out of the water after my first cruel “kiss” with the reef in Chopu (on the hip), one of the surfers warming up on the shore said that I was lucky that I didn’t grab this beauty with my face. And then I realized: yes, damn it, I really am lucky!
Chopu is included in Transworld Surf Magazine's "Top 10 Deadly Waves" list. In 2000, surfer Bruce Taerea experienced the full power of the “break-head”. An unsuccessful attempt to dive through a 4-meter wave by duck-dive ended in death for a professional athlete: a powerful wave pushed the athlete out, throwing him onto the reef. From a fracture of the neck and spine, Bruce fell into a coma, and then died in the hospital.
Pipeline, Hawaii
What can I say, Hawaii - historical homeland surfing, attracting riders of all levels and ages to its waves. But big wave hunters have a certain point here - the Pipeline spot on the coast of Oahu, or rather, on Banzai Beach. In winter, huge (up to 10 meters) pipes rise here, which, closing in shallow water, add another 10 points to the level of danger. It is noteworthy that, depending on the size of the incoming swell, the wave on the Pipeline breaks into several peaks, the most traveled of which is First Reef. It is logical, because the reef that goes into the ocean is divided into three parts by depressions that give the incoming waves additional power. Encountering shallow water, all this huge mass collapses, creating a perfect, but damn dangerous pipe. Speaking of pipes. The Pipeline spot got its name, surprisingly, not at all for the peculiarities of the waves. It was in 1961 when director Bruce Brown decided to shoot some guys on unnamed waves for his surfer film In Search of Summer. And very close by, work was underway on laying underground communications in the ocean. So Brown dubbed the place - Pipeline - very unromantic. Since the 1970s, The Billabong Pipeline Masters has been held here every year, where the strongest athletes fight against the elements for a prize of $425,000. But not everything is so rosy: since 2000, 6 deaths of professional surfers and photographers have been recorded here.
Of course, these are not the only places on Earth where you can come face to face with huge waves. But to learn, and most importantly, to understand them all, you need to make a lot of effort. Not only physical, but also mental. After all, big wave surfing is a deadly enterprise. And for those who still dream of riding, for example, Mavericks, we came up with a motto: “Study. Ride. Rule."