Photo: Frank Quirarte/Billabong.com
Guinness World Records can confirm that Shawn Dollar has entered the record books for surfing the largest wave (paddle-in).
Shawn’s history-making ride occurred on December 21, 2012 at the Cortes Bank, an offshore reef 100 miles west of San Diego, California.
The maximum face height of the wave has now been verified as 61 feet from trough to crest.
Dollar's wave beats Shane Dorian's prior record wave of 57 feet ridden at Jaws, Maui, Hawaii in 2011.
Dollar’s new record caps a remarkable season, with the 32-year-old Californian also walking away with the Billabong XXL Biggest Wave (unlimited) award earlier this month after a jet-ski assisted 61 feet ride, during the same session which saw him set the paddle-in world record.
While Shawn’s award-winning unlimited surf was impressive, it was considerably below Garrett McNamara’s Largest Wave Surfed (Unlimited) world record of 78 feet ride set in Nazaré, Portugal in 2001.