The largest wave ever surfed towered 86 feet at Nazare
An eight-storey wall of Atlantic water, ratified frame by frame.
On 29 October 2020, off Praia do Norte in Nazare, Portugal, German big-wave surfer Sebastian Steudtner rode a wave that Guinness World Records later ratified at 26.21 metres (86 feet) - the largest wave ever surfed. That is roughly the height of an eight-storey building, collapsing behind a single person clinging to a tow-in board.
The number was not eyeballed. The World Surf League analysed video frames from multiple angles, geometrically correcting for camera position and inclination, then used known references - the jet ski and Steudtner’s own body - to convert pixels into a verified height. The mark beat Rodrigo Koxa’s 2017 record, set at the same break, by about six feet.
Nazare owes its monsters to the underwater Nazare Canyon, a deep submarine gorge that funnels and amplifies Atlantic swell into the world’s most reliable giants.
Steudtner has since chased even larger rides, but the 86-foot wave remains the official benchmark for how big a human has ever surfed.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
