26.21 meters – no one has ever surfed a higher wave. This record now belongs to the German Sebastian Steudtner. The Nuremberger has been stirring up the scene for years. And he already wants to push the next border.
Sebastian Steudtner quickly realized that he had never surfed anything bigger before. In October 2020, he chased down the giant wave at over 80 km/h. Tears welled up in his eyes from the crazy speed and the wind in the Atlantic. He immediately noticed that this giant is special, says the German surfer. Others in Nazaré, Portugal saw it too.
Nevertheless, the 37-year-old had to wait a year and a half before this was officially confirmed. It was only clear on Tuesday: the giant was 26.21 meters tall on October 29, 2020. Never before and never since has a human surfed a higher wave.
Sebastian Steudtner: “I never chased titles”
Steudtner is now “officially exceptional”, as he was told when he was presented with the Guinness certificate for the world record in Portugal. “I never chased titles or started the sport to win titles. That’s not in the nature of our sport either,” said Steudtner of the German Press Agency. “But of course: I’m the first person in history to have done that. That’s something special.”
Steudtner has long been one of the best. At the age of 16 he moved from Nuremberg to Hawaii to learn to surf. In the years that followed, he developed into a top athlete and an exotic figure on the big wave scene. Steudtner is the only European to have won the title for the highest surfed wave of the year three times. With the world record, he has finally reached Olympus. In the sport, which is dominated by Americans and Brazilians, there is currently no one better than the boy from Nuremberg.
Sebastian Steudtner already has his next goals in mind
With the world record, Steudtner has now broken the previous record set by the Brazilian Rodrigo Koxa. Koxa also surfed a 24.4 meter high wave in Nazaré in 2017. Why it took the jury so long to measure the exact height of Steudtner’s record wave is a mystery to him too. But it’s no longer important to him. Instead, he already has the next goals in mind.
The season of the gigantic crushers in the coastal town north of Lisbon does not start until autumn. But the preparations are already underway. With a team of sponsors and scientists, Steudtner is working on pushing new boundaries. 26.21 meters? The 37-year-old firmly believes that he will be able to surf even higher waves in the future. “That’s exactly what I’ve set myself as a project for the next few years: I want to work on the technology and try to ride even bigger waves,” he told the “Bild”.
