The ink is dry – do they still make physical copies? – and Laura Enever’s name has been etched into the Guinness Book of World Records.
“Largest wave surfed paddle-in (female)” is the title she now owns. It comes from a wave she caught back on January 22, 2023, when the Australian surfer paddled into a monster at one of Oahu’s outer reefs, which measured in at 43.6 feet, from crest to trough.
But Enever fell on the wave; she got swallowed by a mountain of whitewater, practically before making it to the bottom. Cue the controversy.
Comments about the validity of the record, on account of the wipeout, flooded into the video announcement of the achievement (see above). Comments like:
“It can’t be a world record for she wasn’t able to complete the drop. Big props though Laura for even trying to paddle into such a beast!”
“Hats off to her, absolutely charging, but more of a wipeout, the lip landed on her. Give her female wipeout of the year 10/10”
“So she went down and straight… Heck I don’t have the balls to even be close to anything like that but I wouldn’t say she surfed that wave…”
“Well, she made the drop. Respect! But you could hardly call it ‘surfing the wave’.”
“Big wave indeed, but it shouldn’t be counted as a record because even though she made the drop and rode it to the bottom, she got blasted before setting up the ride…”
“Amazing achievement but not for me in terms of a record ride. It was a drop. What happens when someone completes a drop and bottom turns on a wave of the same size….”
“She wiped out while attempting to drop in. How is that a record?”
The comments go on and on. Mostly, they’re positive, congratulating Enever – even the ones that speculate whether or not it should count since she fell.
Nobody denies this wave was massive. But there’s no fine print in the pages of the Guinness Book of World Records that states one must ride out clean.
The debate rages on…until the next world record rolls in.
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