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Quiksilver XXL Biggest Wave Award Breaks World Record
Quiksilver XXL Biggest Wave Award Breaks World Record
The world's best big wave surfers gathered in Santa Monica for the 2018 World Surf League (WSL) Big Wave Awards. The show at the Red Bull Headquarters awarded the best rides of the past year, including a new World Record from Brazil's Rodrigo Koxa.
Rodrigo Koxa is now the official World Record holder for the biggest wave ever surfed in history after being awarded the Quiksilver XXL Biggest Wave award tonight. The judging panel for the Big Wave Awards concluded that the record-breaking wave surfed by Koxa at NazarÈ, Portugal on November 8, 2017 was 80 feet (24.38 meters) overtaking Garrett McNamara's record, whose wave was marked at 78 feet (23.77 meters) in 2011. The Quiksilver XXL Biggest Wave Award goes to the surfer who, by any means available, catches the biggest wave of the year. Not only did Koxa win this year's honor, but he now holds the Guinness World Record for the biggest wave surfed.
"I try to surf big waves all my life and I had a huge experience in 2014 where I almost died at NazarÈ," Koxa said. "Four months later, I had bad dreams, I didn't travel, I got scared, and my wife helped me psychologically. Now, I'm just so happy and this is the best day of my life. Thank you to WSL, it's a dream come true."
Closer to home this past weekend Durbanite Christy Gilmour clinched first place in the 2018 South African U18 Girls Longboard Championship. Held in Lamberts Bay on the West Coast, Christy remained calm and focussed in a difficult final and pulled off a 9.33 scoring wave, in the last few minutes of the heat. She has shown dedication and pure talent in the run up to this win.