It was a muggy July day in Santa Cruz and life could not have been more mundane for Alessandro “Alo” Slebir. The 24-year-old was pounding wooden concrete forms into a missing section of sidewalk. Cars raced by on a suburban highway as a neighbor walked over, looked at Slebir and asked, “Should I move my car?”
“Hey, no worries, you’re fine! You’re not in the way,” Slebir said, in his characteristically friendly demeanor before returning to his hammer.
You wouldn’t know it from the work boots or dirt smudged on his hands (nor would the neighbor, clearly), but just seven months earlier, Slebir was the man responsible for unofficially breaking surfing’s most mythical goal: riding a world-record-shattering 108-foot-tall wave.
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Alo Slebir said he will do anything that allows him to surf every swell that hits Mavericks, whether that means surf sponsors are paying his way or he needs to work a day job. Lester Black/SFGATE
Such is the split-screen life of Slebir. In the summer, he works construction, but in the winter, he’s a big wave machine riding impossibly massive waves at Mavericks taller than most buildings.
Despite being a surf legend in the making, Slebir spends more time in work boots than wet suits these days. Big wave surfing doesn’t pay enough to support his passion, so the 24-year-old is still working construction. Although that could change.
Slebir was recently featured in an ESPN short centered on him surfing a 100-foot wave, a height that still has yet to be officially confirmed. The newscasters compared it to a female runner clearing a 4-minute mile. The wave is currently being studied by experts at the Big Wave Challenge. Bill Sharp, the award show’s organizer, said in a news release that if any world records are attained, “that status will be revealed” at this year’s Big Wave Challenge Awards in Newport Beach on Sept. 13.
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Alo Slebir appears as just as small dot on the face of a massive Mavericks wave on Dec. 23, 2024. Mavericks Rescue estimated this wave was 108 feet tall. Photo by Frank Quirarte Photography/mavsurfer.surf
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