Love Island star’s monster surfing feat may have broken world record for biggest-ever wave

Laura Crane rode what she described as ‘one of the most perfect big waves’ in Portugal on Saturday

‘I got to have this incredible experience with this wave that I have seen in my dreams a million times over’ (Laurent Pujol/Instagram @lauraloucrane)

A British woman is waiting for confirmation that she has broken the world record for the biggest wave ever taken on by a female surfer.

Former Love Island contestant Laura Crane, from Devon, rode what she described as “one of the most perfect big waves” in Portugal on Saturday.

The 30-year-old believes the wave was bigger than the 73.5ft one surfed by current world record holder Maya Gabeira of Brazil in 2020.

Ms Crane took on the wave while she was competing at the Nazaré Big Wave Challenge. The competition had been halted by a technical fault, which is when Ms Crane went out to continue surfing.

“Most surfers packed up, but I couldn’t,” she told the BBC. “I had just hours of light left and the swell was dying. It was a race against time.”

She was towed into the wave by her teammate Antonio Laureano on a jetski at around 30mph.

“When I came off the back, I cried straight away. The adrenaline is incomparable,” she said.

The ride will now be assessed by Big Wave Challenge judges, who work alongside Guinness World Records, to see whether she has indeed claimed the world record.

“It was just incredible tears of happiness and joy, and that I got to have this incredible experience with this wave that I have seen in my dreams a million times over,” she told The Times.

“It’s always a lot of relief. Once you look over your shoulder at the most critical part, when it’s breaking over your head, you are just trying not to freak out about what is towering behind you. And there is a big moment of relief when your driver is there to pick you up.

“As soon as I came out of the water, the photographer said, ‘I don’t think you understand how big that wave was.’”

The wave surfed by current world record holder Maya Gabeira of Brazil in 2020 (AP)

In 2024, Ms Crane was also the first British woman to surf the waves of Nazaré, which are notoriously large due to a deep underwater canyon.

“I believe I have been training for this my whole life,” she told The Times. “Big wave surfing is really interesting and your life experiences play a part in your mental strength.

“I wouldn’t want to live through some of the things I have lived through again, but it’s given me a thick skin and belief to keep fighting and keep that path open for someone else after me as well. It’s a lifetime in the making and I will still keep going.”