The swell two days before Christmas that gave Santa Cruz surfer Alo Slebir the ride of his life on a towering wave at Mavericks off the coast of Half Moon Bay was officially the biggest wave ridden over the most recent season of surfing, the sport’s authorities announced late Saturday.
But it didn’t set a new world record for the largest wave ever ridden. And the elusive quest to ride a 100-foot wave is still on.
Despite the hype since Slebir’s epic ride Dec. 23 — with preliminary estimates putting it as tall as 108 feet — his wave officially was measured by the World Surf League at 76 feet.
It not only fell short of the yet-to-be-reached 100-foot “Holy Grail” of surfing, it also was 10 feet shy of the existing world record set in 2020 by a German surfer at Nazare, Portugal at 86 feet.