Kite · Foil & Olympics
2023
The largest wave ever kitesurfed
Patri McLaughlin rides a 72-foot wave at Jaws on Maui, the largest wave ever kitesurfed according to Guinness World Records.
Peʻahi (Jaws), Maui · Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL)
Peʻahi on the north shore of Maui, better known as Jaws, has been a stage for big-wave riding since windsurfers first sailed it in the 1980s. On 22 January 2023 a kitesurfer rode the biggest wave yet.
Patri McLaughlin rode a wave of 72 feet 4 inches, about 22 metres. The International Kiteboarding Association measured and certified the wave, and a year later Guinness World Records approved it as the largest wave ever kitesurfed. The news was published in January 2024.
The previous record was Nuno Figueiredo’s 62-foot wave at Nazaré in Portugal, ridden in November 2017. McLaughlin’s wave was ten feet higher.
Sources give slightly different metric figures, from 22.04 to 22.5 metres. The height in feet, 72 feet 4 inches, is the same in all of them, and Guinness lists it as 22.10 metres.