Former pro surfer Laura Enever has broken the world record for paddling onto and surfing the largest wave ever ridden by a female in history.
The 31-year-old big wave surfer caught a record-breaking 43.6 foot wave (13.3 metres) on the North Shore’s outer reef in Oahu, Hawaii.
“I felt it pick me up and I looked down the face and I knew it was big when I was paddling into it but it wasn’t until I looked down the face that it was like ‘this is a long way down’,” she told Sky News Australia.
“This is the biggest wave I’ve ever caught so I think at that moment I knew it was the biggest wave I’ve ever been on – I got to the bottom and the wave just absolutely exploded me, but I was just so stoked – there’s just no feeling like it.”
The historic moment came back in January but required months of ratification as the World Surf League (WSL) measured the wave’s height before verifying her achievement in conjunction with the Guinness World Records.
Enever gave up the World Tour back in 2017 to follow dreams of becoming a professional big wave surfer and has now etched her name in the history books.
