The women surfing 50-foot waves: ‘I’ve almost died so many times’

Poised on a surfboard and dwarfed by a tower of water some 10 times her size, fear is one of the first emotions that big wave surfer Laura Crane feels before she hurtles down a 60-foot behemoth.

Poised on a surfboard and dwarfed by a tower of water some 10 times her size, fear is one of the first emotions that big wave surfer Laura Crane feels before she hurtles down a 60-foot behemoth. “From the moment you let go of that rope and you see this mountain of water starting to grow behind you, there are instant feelings of fear that are, of course, like a bodily reaction,” Crane told CNN Sports. With waves ranging from 25 feet to, at times, over 70 feet, big wave surfers can reach speeds of up to 100 kph (around 62 mph) as they charge down the biggest walls of water. If they fall or wipeout, any impact that they take could is comparable to that of a car crash. But far from dissuading her from surfing down the crest of the roaring water, British surfer Crane uses her fear to drive her. “I see fear as more of a catalyst for the fact that something amazing is about to happen and excites me – it prepares me to take on what I’m about to take on. It makes me super alert, super ready, and it also reminds me to calm myself and to prove to myself that I have the ability to calm myself in those fearful moments,” she added. Crane is one of a small number of women who have taken on the waves at Nazaré, a Portuguese fishing village renowned for its 100-foot giants.