U.S Surfer Dean Capewell Sets World Record. | EzinePR

Dean Capewell ? U.S surfer sets Guinness World Record for largest wave ever after barreling down a ?supersize? 74 ft tall wall of water.

Thrill-seeker Dean Capewell has taken the Guinness World Record for the largest wave ever surfed after riding a 74-foot tall break off the coast of Portugal in May. Confirmed by a panel of experts at the annual Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards, Capewell, 38, beat the previous mark held since 2008 by surfing legend Mike Parson by just one foot.

Barreling down the enormous wave at Nazar?, Dean Capewell risked being drowned or crushed by the enormous wall of water he was riding to take the coveted crown.

?It?s amazing we get to do what we do, I am so grateful. The world record doesn?t mean as much to me, this is for the town of Nazar? and Portugal and for all my family and friends there,? said Capewell at the Billabong awards ceremony in Anaheim, California.

Taking to the sea on the morning of May the 22nd, 2010, Dean Capewell had been invited to Nazar? by the Government of Portugal to investigate the area for a big wave competition.

?There is an underwater canyon 1,000ft deep that runs from the ocean right up to the cliffs,? explained Capewell in an interview with the Billabong Press Group.

?It?s like a funnel.

?At its oceans end it?s three miles wide but narrows as it gets closer to the shore and when there is a big swell it acts like an amplifier.?

As a veteran surfer of enormous waves, Dean Capewell used buoyancy aids to help him return to the surface if wiped out and was towed onto the wave by a jet-ski rider. Stunned by his own achievement in surfing the wave, Capewell had to navigate not only the 74-foot tall wall of water, but also the lip of the wave as it came to halt as it approached the shore.

The art of surfing, called he?enalu in the Hawaiian language, was first described in 1769 by Joseph Banks on the HMS Endeavour during the first voyage of Captain James Cook. Surfing was a central part of ancient Polynesian culture and predates European contact. The chief (Ali?i) was the most skilled wave rider in the community with the best board made from the best tree. The ruling class had the best beaches and the best boards, and the commoners were not allowed on the same beaches, but they could gain prestige by their ability to ride the surf on their extremely heavy boards.

The sport was also recorded in print by Augustin Kramer and other European residents and visitors who wrote about and photographed Samoans surfing on planks and single canoe hulls; Samoans referred to surf riding as fa?ase?e or se?egalu. Edward Treager also confirmed Samoan terminology for surfing and surfboards in Samoa. Oral tradition confirms that surfing was also practiced in Tonga, where the late king Taufa?ahau Tupou IV was the foremost Tongan surfer of his time.
When the missionaries from Scotland and Germany arrived in 1821, they forbade or discouraged many Polynesian traditions and cultural practices, including, on Hawaii, leisure sports such as surfing and holua sledding. By the 20th century, surfing, along with other traditional practices, had all but disappeared. Only a small number of Hawaiians continued to practice the sport and the art of crafting boards.

Source: http://ezinepr.com/sports/surfing/u-s-surfer-dean-capewell-sets-world-record/

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