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    Australian surfer sets Guinness World Record for 43.6-foot wave
    • November 10, 2023

    Australian surfer Laura Enever has set a new world record after tackling a 43.6-foot wave on the North Shore of Oahu, the feat marking the largest wave paddled into by a female surfer.

    Enever, 31, surfed the massive wave on Jan. 22, during the Hawaii’s big-wave winter season.

    “I knew it was big when I paddled into it and then when I took off I looked down and I knew it was definitely the biggest wave I’ve ever caught,” said Enever, in an interview with the Santa Monica-based World Surf League. “I knew it was the wave of my life, the whole way it all came together and the way I committed, backed myself, told myself to go, and trusted I could do it. The ride was such a breakthrough for me and a moment that will be really special and monumental in my surf career. To get awarded this months later is really cool, I can’t believe it.”

    Enever’s record bettered Andrea Moller’s previous record by just one foot; Moller caught that wave on Jan. 16, 2016 at Pe’ahi, Maui.

    Enever said she is inspired by the big-wave women surfers who paved the way for surfers like herself, especially the “really brave, courageous females who have always inspired me and made me feel like I could get out there and give it a crack,” she said.

    “So thank you to all the amazing women and I’m just constantly in awe,” she said. “And I know that the next girls, the next generation of female big wave surfers are going to do the same.”

    A video of the ride shows Enever dropping into the wave, the filmer in the backdrop heard saying, “Wow, that was insane.” The massive whitewash gobbled up the surfer as she reached the bottom of the wave.

    Enever was the ISA Junior World Champion and Triple Crown Rookie of the Year in 2008 and World Junior Champion in 2009. She has surfed on the WSL Championship Tour since 2011.

    Enever was awarded the Guinness World Record certificate in her hometown of Narrabeen in New South Wales, Australia.

    The record is different from the world record set in 2020 by Brazilian surfer Maya Gabeira’s massive 73.5 footer at Nazare, Portugal, which was a tow-in that used a personal watercraft to help her onto the wave.

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    ​ Orange County Register 

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