The ocean wants to kill you. That’s an inarguable fact. Now, you could probably debate how much consciousness the ocean has on the matter, of course. But it exists to end your life, in myriad ways. From drowning to hypothermia to sharks to just about any other horrifying thing you can imagine, the ocean will end you and then move on like nothing happened.
I don’t swim.
Surfers, though, love to spit right in the eye of the ocean, climbing aboard small, weirdly shaped pieces of fiberglass and riding waves like this huge-ass swell off the coast of Portugal:
Look at that dude go. (“Dude” in this case being surfer parlance for “moron willing to perform affronts to the ferocity of nature”.) Here it is in gif form:
The dude’s name is Sebastian Steudtner, because of course it is. According to BroBible, this wave clip is being debated as perhaps being evidence of the biggest wave ever surfed:
Most recently, back in October, it was German surfer Sebastian Steudtner who had all of the big wave surfing community gushing over his insane ride. At this point, most experts are in agreement that this is not the largest wave ever ridden. However, due to Sebastian bailing out of the wave before getting crushed like a bug it’s not really clear how big this Nazaré giant really was, and it’s still up for debate on whether or not this is the largest wave ever ridden by man.
I for one am shocked that surfing, of all pastimes, does not keep strict records. But, in all seriousness, it is probably impossible to judge relative wave size, especially on this massive a scale. That post offers this video as the consensus largest wave ever surfed, and the footage is ridiculous. It almost feels like a Christopher Nolan movie, with the juxtaposition of the people watching on what look to be ancient coastal structures as giant waves hurtle past.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtVQJCq2cCM
Those are truly some big-ass waves.
[BroBible]
