iStock/Thinkstock(SANTA MONICA, Calif.) — A Brazilian surfer has been credited with riding the largest wave ever surfed.
Rodrigo Koxa was honored at the World Surf League’s Big Wave Awards in Santa Monica, California, for navigating a monstrous 80-foot swell last year. The governing body of the World Surf League recognized the feat by awarding him the Quiksilver XXL Biggest Wave Award.
“The award goes to the surfer who, by any means available, catches the biggest wave of the year,” the World Surf League said in a press release.
“Any time there is a new world record within big wave surfing it brings the sport back to the front of the line of extreme sports awareness. Few other sports that have been practiced for centuries have seen the dramatic progress that big wave surfing has gone through in the last 25 years, where wave heights being ridden have nearly doubled,” Cloe Kojima, World Surf League spokeswoman, told ABC News.
The 38-year old was photographed on Nov. 8, 2017, in Naraze, Portugal, riding a massive wave which clocked in at a whopping 80 feet.
“Not only did Koxa win this year’s honor, but he now holds the Guinness World Record for the biggest wave surfed,” according to the press release.
The Sao Paulo native’s huge wave breaks the previous World Surf League record of a 78-foot wave, which was set by Garrett McNamara in 2011.
Koxa thanked his fans and called the award an honor and “a dream come true,” in a tweet, which was written in Portuguese, Saturday night.
The World Surf League’s Big Wave Awards is considered the Oscars of surfing.
“Seeing a tiny person taking on a gigantic and potentially lethal wall of water, and escaping safely,” Kojima said, “captures the attention of the mainstream public like no other aspect of the surfing sport or lifestyle.”
Copyright © 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.