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Tuesday’s Hot Clicks: Surfer Rides Enormous Wave, Believed to Be Record 100 Feet Tall

British surfer Tom Butler surfed a wave believed to be 100 feet tall, 20 feet taller than the current world record. 

Dan Gartland

Tuesday’s Hot Clicks: Surfer Rides Enormous Wave, Believed to Be Record 100 Feet Tall
Tuesday’s Hot Clicks: Surfer Rides Enormous Wave, Believed to Be Record 100 Feet Tall /

This might be the biggest wave ever surfed

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. Butler rode a wave on Friday that is being touted as 100 feet tall, 20 feet higher than Koxa’s record ride. 

“When I was going down I thought, ‘holy f---, this is the fastest I’ve ever been,’” Butler told Cornwall Live. “Time kind of slows down, it’s instinct really. I was doing everything to hold my balance.”

The tricky part now is verifying the size of the wave. McNamara surfed a wave in 2013 that was believed to be 100 feet high, but it could not be confirmed. If the height of Butler’s wave can be verified, he’ll take home the biggest wave award at the World Surf League’s Big Wave Awards in April. 

CC got his money anyway

Remember when CC Sabathia got ejected only six outs shy of earning a $500,000 bonus? The Yankees gave him the money anyway. 

“We thought it was a very nice gesture by the Yankees,” Sabathia’s agent, Kyle Thousand of Roc Nation Sports, told The Associated Press on Monday. “CC was very appreciative and is really excited to come back next year and, hopefully, win a championship.”

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Email dan.gartland@simail.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.

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Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).

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