Science at the service of surfing to overcome bigger waves

Having the record for the biggest wave ever surfed has not satisfied the hunger of German Sebastian Steudtner, a great sportsman who has taken it into his head to use science to overcome walls of water that are increasingly higher and more powerful.

In the video of his feat, carried out on October 29, 2020this surfer is a tiny black dot in front of a 26.21 meter wall, famous since that day for becoming the person capable of surfing the biggest wave ever measured.

Three years later, at the same point on the Portuguese coast, Nazaréthe mecca of surfing, this 38-year-old Bavarian hopes to break new records. As is known, the giant wave season has just begun in this area, caused by winter depressions, a phenomenon that attracts the best surf specialists every year.

Steudtner has been preparing for months with some traveling companions more accustomed to asphalt than water: the car manufacturer Porsche and the vehicle component manufacturer Schaeffler.

Inner force

The athlete’s reasoning is simple: “With the world record wave, I immediately saw that I reached the limits with my board“, he explained to the AFP at a meeting in Munich, in his native region. “With Porsche, we thought about how to make the board both faster and more stable.”

The question of speed is decisive for this extreme practice of surfing “because the bigger the wave, the more speed I have to take to be able to get out,” explains the athlete, who should specify “to be able to get out… alive”, since These water monsters do not forgive the slightest weakness.

During his record-breaking 2020, “I surf the wave at 80 km/h and concentrate on it 100%, so I don’t think about the past, the present, or the future (…) I don’t have time to think, Wow, this wave is magnificent!”, he remembers.

“The power of the wave is an absolute force, it is like having several buildings that push you.”

At the height of the big waves

Together with Porsche engineers they have designed a new iron. The tip, tail and edges have been adapted to take advantage of the hydrodynamics. Schaeffler has taken care to create a coating that reduces friction.

Tests in a wind tunnel, as if surfing the Nazaré monsters, have allowed Steudtner to adapt his position.

“We have been able to reduce air resistance by 20% with the design of the iron and Sebastian’s stance, which makes the plank faster and more stable at high speed,” explains Markus Schmelz, project manager at Porsche Engineering.

With its new board, in striking yellow and black colors, Steudtner will now look for THE wave. “I can wait for it for three months and, in just a few days, have to give my best,” explained the surfer, who trains daily both in the water and in the gym.

Sebastián Steudtner currently has a team of around thirty people, including military doctors, who accompany this passionate about the technique of the discipline in the adventure who already has a new challenge in mind: “Understanding the journey of waves in the ocean”.