Et’s like waiting a year and a half for your gold medal. To the reward for the greatest success of his career as an athlete. That’s what happened to Sebastian Steudtner, the German big-wave surfer, who found his sporting home in Nazaré in Portugal, where in the winter half-year monster waves roll in with unimaginable force on Praia do Norte, the north beach, towering high.
In October 2020, Steudtner let himself be drawn into one of these giant waves by his Brazilian jet skier Alemão de Maresias. As he let go of the rope and his partner veered away, he shot into a chasm of hard water. Never before, said Steudtner, who has devoted himself to this extreme sport on the border between life and death for more than a dozen years, he had never reached such a speed on his board, more than 80 kilometers per hour, he had never been like this before come close to his physical limits like that day.
