Laird Hamilton believes Carlos Burle has not set a new world record for the biggest wave ever surfed because the Brazilian didn't complete the ride, at Praia do Norte, Nazaré, Portugal.
The Hawaiian waterman known for riding the Millennium Wave, on August 17, 2000, says Carlos Burle should've completed the ride to claim the Guinness World Record owned by Garrett McNamara.
"First of all, to set a world record for riding the biggest wave, you need to make the wave and I believe Carlos did not make that ride", Hamilton tells CNN.
"As a big wave rider, our objective is to be safe. The whole thing about making the wave is, first catch it, and then complete the ride by riding into the safe spot, where you finish the ride, where you can be picked by the jet ski driver, or where you can safely paddle away".
"If you get hit by the wave after you've been riding it, we call that wiping out. That's a failed attempt in the school that I went to. You can't expect to ride the biggest wave ever without finishing the ride"
"I know that that location has giant surf. The whole idea of putting measurement on a wave is very subjective and very difficult to measure the true velocity of the wave to take the height. It's like measuring one side of the cube and saying that's the volume of the cube".
Laird Hamilton ends up saying that Maya Gabeira shouldn't be surfing the largest waves of Nazaré, and that is Carlos Burle's responsibility to take care of her and "he's lucky she didn't drown".