Carlos Burle Surfs World's Largest Wave, After Saving a Friend's Life

Earlier this week, half-superhero, half-surfer Carlos Burle of Brazil surfed a 100+ foot wave (believed to be the largest wave surfed), and this was after saving the life of his fellow surfer and friend Maya Gabeira. This occurred at the same stretch of Portuguese beach where Garrett McNamara rode a similar record-breaking wave back in January. While McNamara's wave was undeniably impressive, Burle's skirmish with mother nature is believed to have been even larger.

Carlos Burle visited the Portuguese coastal city of Praia do Norte for the sole purpose of riding a monster wave. This location is notorious for producing monstrous breaks during storms, and with Saint Jude rolling through the region, this seemed like the perfect time for Burle to play chicken with mother nature.

Before Burle even rode the 100+ foot wave, though, he rescued Maya Gabeira, who was knocked unconscious while surfing the same waters as Burle. While riding a jet ski, Burle noticed Gabeira wiped out and was pulled underwater. Several minutes passed before she floated to the surface. Burle sped off on his jet ski over to Gabeira and carried her back to shore. He then proceeded to perform CPR, and once Gabeira was conscious, he drove her to the hospital.

"After rescuing Maya and getting her off to the hospital I went back out," said Burle.

Burle also stated that his legs were becoming to come out of the straps while he was surfing the wave. The sheer power and force of the wave was literally pulling him off his surfboard. Thankfully, Burle was able to stay afloat and successfully surf the wave.

There's still no 'official' word yet as to whether or not this was the world's largest wave ever surfed. With that said, most surfing experts and analysts are claiming that it is. Once this information is verified, Burle will take a place in the Guinness World Records for surfing the largest wave. Of course, someone else will probably come along and ride a 150-foot wave before we know it.

Video of Carlos Burle Surfing The World's Largest Wave

Check out this video showing Burle hammering down the skyscraper-esque wave in Portugal. As you can see, there's not much light in the video due to the massive storm rolling through. It's a grim, tense atmospheric that Burle somehow musters the courage to face head on. Just watching the whitewater splash at the wave's break is enough to send me running in the opposite direction.