Watch California surfer catch monster 108-foot wave — possibly riding into history books

A California surfer shredded a monster wave at Mavericks last week — and may have ridden into the record books.

Alessandro “Alo” Slebir, 23, was surfing with friends on Dec. 23 when he caught what some are estimating to be a jaw-dropping 108-foot-tall breaking wave in the popular surfing spot just north of Half Moon Bay, about 25 miles southwest of San Francisco.

Slebir was in Hawaii when he heard about a major storm that moved off Japan and was creating huge waves across the Pacific and heading straight for Mavericks.

“It wasn’t like a decision of maybe we should go or not,” he told KSBW.

“You’re going so fast on those surfboards — you’re probably going 30, 40, 50 miles an hour and that wave was so tall that it was sucking so much water coming back at you that it was a weird feeling.” Slebir said. “Feeling the friction of the water underneath the surfboard, I’ve never felt that on really any other wave that I’ve ever caught.”

Incredible footage captured the impressive feat and showed Slebir fearlessly riding the enormous wave as it swelled to more than ten times his height.

The young surfer kept just enough distance to outrun the breaking wave, which exploded in a fury of whitewater just behind the back of his board.

Experts are still working to confirm the speculated 108-foot-tall height of the wave — a height that would blow the previous surfing record of 86 feet out of the water.

German surfer Sebastian Steudtner holds the title for the largest wave ever surfed with Guinness World Records and the World Surf League, after catching the 86-foot wave off at in Nazaré off the coast of Portugal in 2022.

Crowning a new record holder might not be so simple, however, with some experts comparing the process to “naming a new pope.”

“You can measure Mt. Everest every day of the week for 100 years, it never moves,” Bill Sharp, who has spent decades orchestrating the world’s most rigorous big wave surfing awards, told the Los Angeles Times. “But even the biggest wave lasts only for a few seconds, and then it’s gone forever.”

A group of eagle-eyed experts follow a process known as photogrammetry, which involves comparing the size of the surfer in the footage to the height of the wave.

The process becomes complicated because surfers don’t stand at their full height when they’re riding waves — plus some might be willing to take an inch or two off their stated height, if it means taking home a new title.

It’s also difficult to determine exactly where the flat water in front of a wave ends and the upward slope begins.

If — after a lengthy process — Slebir is crowned the new record-holder, it would mark the first time in more than two decades the title will be held for a wave in California.