Guinness Recognizes World’s Best Surfer

Guinness Recognizes World’s Best Surfer

The Guinness record-keeping agency is acknowledging a 44-year-old Hawaii pro surfer for conquering a 78-foot wave off the coast of Portugal, beating a 2008 record by more than 1 foot.

Big-wave surfer Garrett McNamara of Haleiwa, on Oahu's North Shore, told The Associated Press that the ride of his life was a stroke of luck.

He confessed that he originally didn't want to attempt the waves that day, but changed his mind with the urging of his friends.

His video shows a minuscule of him at 5-foot-10-inch McNamara against walls of high waves and bravely riding down the huge wave at Praia do Norte.

McNamara said he it wasn’t important for him at first to know whether the wave was a record, but was urged by the townspeople in Nazare, Portugal to have it confirmed.

The official record comes after McNamara was awarded $15,000 for the ride at the Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards in California last week.

Judges for the awards, considered the official arbiters of big-wave surfing, pored over the footage and high-resolution still images from several angles to calculate a more accurate estimate. McNamara's height in a crouch and the length of his shin bone are a big factor in helping the committee to measure the wave's height, event director Bill Sharp said.

McNamara, who began surfing at age 11 and became pro at 17, said the achievement became more meaningful to him when he realized it could help him encourage more people to follow their passions.

"The world would be a much better place if everyone was doing what they wanted to do," he said.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Sunday May 13 2012, 1:24 PM EST. Ref: Yahoo. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0