Santa Cruz surfer’s epic ride at Mavericks was largest of the season, but fell short of record

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 greater part new season of surfing the sport s administration informed late Saturday But it didn t set a new world record for the largest wave ever ridden And the elusive quest to ride a -foot wave is still on Despite the hype since Slebir s epic ride Dec with preliminary estimates putting it as tall as feet his wave officially was measured by the World Surf League at feet It not only fell short of the yet-to-be-reached -foot Holy Grail of surfing it also was feet shy of the existing world record set in by a German surfer at Nazare Portugal at feet The news came during the Big Wave Challenge awards ceremony Saturday night in Newport Beach that drew surfers from around the globe What they came up with kind of shocked the crowd Bay Area surfing photographer Frank Quirarte who was in the ocean taking photographs and video that day revealed Sunday after attending the Saturday ceremony Even so the -foot wave earned Slebir the Men s Biggest Wave Winner of the - season Quirarte s photo of Slebir s ride earned him the Biggest Wave Photo of the night Slebir s ride during one of the biggest swells ever recorded in the Pacific Ocean drew national attention The same storm two days before Christmas destroyed the Santa Cruz Wharf But Slebir who works in construction during the off-season had downplayed the anticipated feat from the start If it happens it happens and if not Slebir mentioned before the announcement I got to ride the tallest wave of my life and I ll never forget it Although the crest of a wave is usually simple to gauge determining the trough is trickier surf experts have declared It s accomplishable that initial estimates of the -foot height which stacked images of Slebir crouching on his surfboard up the face of the wave may have started at a lower point than what the World Surf League measured Photos of six angles of Slebir s ride were used to assess the height of the wave stated Bill Sharp of the Big Wave Challenge Despite Quirarte s disappointment that Slebir s wave fell short of the record he commented people surf for the love of the sport not the accolades Last night will be long forgotten and the big wave season will start up again in about another month Quirarte noted We ll do it all over again