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The Guinness Book of World Records chronicles extraordinary accomplishments. It tells us that Garrett McNamara surfed the largest wave ever. Of course it doesn't explain how. Or why.
It's a good question. Garrett is no ordinary champion.
2.5 billion years ago, Pittsfield, Massachusetts was covered in water. That fact comes closest to explaining how an ordinary boy born to a missionary mother and absent father in this ordinary town could do something that no other human has ever done. Nothing else explains it.
True, Garrett's other accomplishments are legendary:
2002: First winning cup at Jaws World Cup Tow in Surfing
2003: 1st Place World Cup of Tow in Surfing
2004: Surfer Poll Best Tube Award
2005: 1st Place Tow Surfing Championship
2006: 1st Place Nelscot Tow Surfing Championship
2007: First and only team to explore and surf waves created from a 300ft calving glacier in Alaska
2008: XXL Awards – Performance of the Year Award
2009: XXL Awards – Biggest wave paddled
2010: Exploration of Praia do Norte - Nazaré, Portugal
2011: Entered into Guinness World Records for Largest Wave Ever Surfed 78 feet (24 m) - Nazaré, Portugal
2012: Won 3 XXL Awards | Biggest Wave Award, Wipeout of the Year Award, Ride of the year Award
2013: First and only foreigner to ever by awarded the prestigious Vasco de Gama Medal of Honor by the Portuguese Navy
2013: Broke his own world record by surfing an estimated 100-foot (30m) wave - Nazaré, Portugal
But, though his accomplishments are legion, Garrett is far from your cookie cutter champion. He can't just show up at some neatly arranged event and best the competition. He travels the globe to find pieces of ocean never discovered and patiently waits for Mother Nature to produce the perfect storm so he can do what he does best… surf the biggest waves on the planet. No man-made game with a ball and a goal and no finish line; he champions something more fundamental. There have always been waves; longer than there have been people to challenge them. So when an ordinary man from an ordinary place fueled only by extraordinary passion accomplishes the inconceivable involving a man and a wave, it's timeless. It lifts us all equally. And it proves that none of us, not one, need be ordinary.
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