I grew up with a family full of surfers. One of my cousins travels all over the world to surf some of the best waves out there. I have never known anyone crazy enough to try this, though.
This stuff is absolutely breathtaking.
(p.s.- Slow Motion makes everything cooler. Everything.)
Here’s the text that accompanies the video from Chris Bryan’s Vimeo profile:
“This day at Teahupoo- Aug 27th 2011 during the Billabong Pro waiting period is what many are calling the biggest and gnarliest Teahupoo ever ridden. Chris Bryan was fortunate enough to be there working for Billabong on a day that will go down in the history of big wave surfing. The French Navy labeled this day a double code red prohibiting and threatening to arrest anyone that entered the water.
Kelly Slater described the day by saying “witnessing this was a draining feeling being terrified for other people’s lives all day long, it’s life or death. Letting go of that rope one time can change your life and not many people will ever experience that in their life.”
All images where shot by Chris Bryan using the Phantom HD Gold camera. To see more of Chris’ work check out his website. WWW.CHRISBRYANFILMS.COM
Music: Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun’ by M83.”
****NOTE*****
Within the hour that I posted the video, it vanished from the page! The link below does take you to another version of it, though. Sorry for the confusion!
Smashby's Training Blog 
This is beautiful. I especially like the surfer who was trailing his hand in the water as he was overshadowed by this monstrous wave. Maybe it sounds weird, but it seemed so intimate. You could see that he just truly loved what he was doing in that moment.
So glad you like this, Stacy! I definitely did, too. Thinking about the last time I went surfing in Brasil, and how the waves were smaller than the SURFERS… not the waves they were riding!!!! I can’t even imagine being around water like that.
These “drops” into the waves might, literally, be life or death scenarios…. I cannot even imagine.