The underground rock formation that generates the Mavericks waves is actually pretty small. Photographers, rescue jetskis, and onlookers on small boats can be on very calm water, while surfers they're watching are riding a 100 ft wave just a few meters away.
It’s how the size of the waves is calculated. They talk about it in the first season of the 100 Foot Waves TV show mentioned in the article. Video from several angles is analyzed using the surfer or another known object for scale.
It’s not easy to measure ocean waves unless you have a jetski riding right on the crest or a LIDAR system on shore which is expensive.
I'm going to read this article because the image is cool and I love California.
But I had to comment on how obnoxious this website is with my NextDNS mistakingly disabled. What have we done to the Internet! 3 popups to sign up for paid, newsletter and web alerts. scroll down to see auto playing videos, ridiculous full-banner ads.
It's so surprising that we don't use a precise method of gauging wave height for these records. AFAIK they still estimate the surfers height while riding, and then count those heights up the side of the wave in a photograph.
I'd imagine we would have a method closer to surveying techniques by now.
The article appears a few days old since it was before they had the awards. Apparently they had the Big Wave 2025 awards two days ago, and declared that his wave was "only" 76 feet, but he did win the award for Biggest Wave for this year.
Source: (also the awards show is embedded here as a video)
I know nothing about surfing but I picked up Barbarian Days on Audible https://www.audible.com/pd/Barbarian-Days-Audiobook/B00YMMTO... and I was captivated. After I finished it I started looking for surf schools within driving distance of my home, still looking for something on the (New) Jersey Shore or Long Island. Anyone have any suggestions?
I wonder if he would describe himself as a construction worker, or maybe he would say he's a surfer who does construction to make a living? Sometimes you can see a struggle to define a person independent of their jobs, why does it matter here?
I see the headline here changed, it used to be:
[Calif. construction worker unofficially broke a fabled world record]
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[ 5.6 ms ] story [ 58.0 ms ] threadIt’s not easy to measure ocean waves unless you have a jetski riding right on the crest or a LIDAR system on shore which is expensive.
He rides BEHIND surfers in the barrel. Absolutely nuts.
Clickbait title, interstitial ads, floating vid, back jacking, newsletter, notification...
When I open the page it's only a third that's content -- and that's only the clickbait title.
What garbage...
But I had to comment on how obnoxious this website is with my NextDNS mistakingly disabled. What have we done to the Internet! 3 popups to sign up for paid, newsletter and web alerts. scroll down to see auto playing videos, ridiculous full-banner ads.
wow
That is rather wild.
I'd imagine we would have a method closer to surveying techniques by now.
Source: (also the awards show is embedded here as a video)
https://www.coastsidenews.com/review/news/santa-cruz-surfer-...
I see the headline here changed, it used to be: [Calif. construction worker unofficially broke a fabled world record]