28/05/2022
SEBASTIAN STEUDTNER NEW RECORD HOLDER FOR THE BIGGEST WAVE IN THE WORLD SURFED IN NAZARÉ
Nazaré, Leiria, May 24, 2022 (Lusa) - German surfer Sebastian Steudtner is the new record holder for the biggest wave in the world, with 26.21 meters, announced today, in Nazaré, the Guinness Book of Records.
The certification of the biggest wave, surfed at Praia do Norte, in Nazaré, on October 29, 2020, was delivered on 24th May 2022 by a Guinness judge, at the fort of S. Miguel, to the surfer who was “very proud” of having surfed a wave “created by a storm” and that proves that “anything you really want to do in life is possible”.
“I was not born in a country with waves”, said the German surfer, adding that he also did not have “the opportunity, as a child, to travel to countries and surf”, maintaining that he had to use his “motivation” to move to “another country” and dedicate himself to surfing, a sport he never gave up.
Based in Nazaré since 2012, the surfer regularly trains in the giant waves of Praia do Norte and guarantees that he will remain “in the race” in which if athletes “work hard and are dedicated to what they do, all dreams are possible”.
The award of the biggest wave in the world in Nazaré, for the fifth time, “is not banal, but it is starting to be normal”, said the mayor, Walter Chicharro, considering that the waves of Praia do Norte have, in the last decade,“provided a great service to the country”.
After Garrett McNamara made the giant waves of Praia do Norte famous with the record broken in 2011, the mayor guarantees that whenever he participates in events abroad, “Nazaré is the second largest Portuguese brand, only dethroned by Cristiano Ronaldo”.
All the more so since, underlined Francisco Spinola, from the World Surf League, despite “dozens of wave applications from several countries around the world being received”, the competition for the biggest wave has been “Nazaré against Nazaré”.
The first surfer to break a record in Nazaré was the Hawaiian Garrett McNamara, when he surfed a wave at 23.77 meters high, on November 1, 2011.