Saving a friend’s life & setting a new world record

carlos-burle-in-action-kidznewsWhat an amazing day the Brazilian surfer Carlos Burle had on October 28th, 2013. He saved his friend’s life and set a new world record by riding “the largest wave ever”. All this happened at Praia do Norte, near the coastal town of Nazaré in Portugal. Nazaré’s beaches are famous for producing some very big waves and big wave surfers from all over the world come to ride them. A few hours before Carlos caught the record setting wave, he was part of a team that rescued Maya Gabeira from drowning. Maya is also a Brazilian surfer, who was knocked unconscious while surfing those same waves.

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While Guinness World Records will need to certify the record, observers say that Carlos Burle “crushed” the current world record for largest wave surfed. The world record is currently held by Garrett McNamara from Hawaii, USA. The record was set in November 2011 at the same beach! The wave was 78 feet (approximately 24 meters) high.

To visit Carlos’ site, please click on his picture:

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Tell me a bit about big wave surfing, please

The terms “Big wave surfing” and “Tow-in surfing” are used to describe surfing of waves that exceed 30 feet (approximately 10 meters). In order to catch one of these extreme waves a the surfer is towed to the wave with a jet-ski, sometimes even dropped in from a helicopter. The surf boards are known as “guns” or towboards. The sizes of the board needed to successfully surf these waves vary by the size of the wave as well as the technique the surfer uses. The tow-in method is considered to be one of the biggest breakthroughs in surfing history.

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