The World Surf League has announced that the world record for the largest wave ever surfed by a woman has been broken by Maya Gabeira from Brazil who surfed a 73.5 foot wave on the 11th of February this year. It beats the record she already held by 5.5 feet. It is also the largest wave surfed by anyone, male or female, this year.
Despite occurring in February, it was only recently that the announcement was made as the awarding body had to take the time to verify the results, and given the current global situation, things were that bit more difficult this year.
In fact, measuring wave height is a notoriously difficult practice, and involves complex measurements and the use of photographic and video evidence. Indeed, in this case, scientists were brought in from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Southern California's Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering who used a technique known as photogrammetry to ascertain the height of the wave surfed.
Some have even suggested that waves surfed by men have previously often been judged to be comparatively higher than those surfed by women due to unconscious gender bias, something the new technological measuring tools wish to stamp out. Maya herself has spoken of the difficulties in making it such a male-dominated sport. She said:
"The loneliness that involves deciding to become a big-wave surfer as a female makes it much more difficult. It's just harder to establish [yourself as a woman] in a male-dominated community. Guys take other guys under their wing; they travel together. I don't have a group of girlfriends traveling with me chasing huge waves. Men have many different groups to go with."
Maya, who is 33 began, surfing as a pro in Hawaii when she was just 17 and suffered a terrible accident in 2013 when she crashed in a wave, breaking her leg, damaging her spine, and ending up underwater for more than a minute. She was revived on the beach, but it could have been so much worse. Since then, she has made sure to adopt stringent safety measures but never lost sight of her goal of being the world's best female surfer.
It wasn't easy however. Until 2018, there was no separate world record for highest wave surfed by a woman, and after Maya surfed a 68 foot wave officially, it took 8 months of petitioning and campaigning by Maya and her supporters, in both the surfing world and the general public, for the official surfing bodies and the Guinness World Record registry to recognise it.
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