There’s a Portuguese fishing village called Nazaré where a submarine canyon causes waves to swell to the size of large buildings. The locals never dared to take surfboards out into the deadly water but an American named Garrett McNamara couldn’t resist the pull of reliable monster waves. In 2011, he set a world record by riding a wave that measured at 78 feet. The mark stood for seven years, until Brazilian Rodrigo Koxa surfed a wave that was officially measured at 80 feet.
British surfer Tom Butler appears to have blown that record out of the water.