SANTA CRUZ – Every time a massive swell is forecast, Santa Cruz’s hard-charging, big wave surfer Alessandro “Alo” Slebir can hardly contain himself.
Several times each winter, Slebir drives an hour up the coast to Half Moon Bay and crashes at tow-in partner Luca Padua’s house. There, they begin preparations for what awaits them the next few days on one of the world’s gnarliest big wave breaks, Mavericks.
“When you wake up that morning, you’re what we say, ‘jazzed,’ full of adrenaline, excited,” said Slebir, 23, named the Mavericks Awards’ Men’s Performer of the Year the past two years. “Sometimes you don’t sleep the night before, just like a kid on Christmas Eve. You can’t wait to see what your presents are. How many presents and how many coals can you get in one day?”
It was gifts galore on Dec. 23, when one of the biggest swells in the past 50 years hit the West Coast. Slebir, with Padua’s help, caught 25 to 30 waves that day, including two barrels. He bailed twice.
Over the course of an exhausting, but exhilarating, thrill-filled day, one wave stood tallest, bigger and badder than the rest. And when the mountain of seawater came crashing down, Slebir had already rocketed down its face at knee knocking speed and was ahead of the surging whitewater.
Slebir didn’t fully know what he’d just accomplished. But, with that epic ride, caught on film and posted on social media, where it went viral, his status went from local talent to global sensation.
The wave was estimated to have a 108-foot face, making Slebir a contender to break the world record for the biggest wave ever surfed. Germany’s Sebastian Steudtner holds the record, 93.73 feet, for his epic ride at Nazaré, Portugal, in February of 2024.
The height of the possibly historic wave Slebir rode won’t be revealed for another seven months.
Slebir isn’t surfing for records. He said he’s surfing for the thrill of it. For that reason, he doesn’t care what the official measurement is.
“It’s the biggest wave of my life,” he said. “For me, it’s an awesome achievement.”
It may sound silly, given his age, but Slebir has waited his whole life for a wave like that.
DIAPER GROM
Both of Slebir’s parents, John Slebir and Cristina Lupano, are recreational surfers.
“I like big waves, but nothing like that. You have to be possessed to do that,” John said. “I’m proud of him. He’s doing what he loves to do, and I’m happy he’s safe when he’s done.”
John, a former City of Santa Cruz lifeguard who played water polo at Harbor High, is an attorney. Lupano, who grew up in Ivrea, Italy, has served as a program manager for a variety of tech companies.
They introduced their only child to the sport, but had no idea it would consume him, even as a toddler.
“He was 3 years old,” said John, recalling the first time he got his son on a board. “I propped him up on the nose (of the board) at Cowell’s.”
One of John’s close friends, Zach Wormhoudt, a former city lifeguard who became a three-time finalist at the now-defunct Titans of Mavericks contest, gifted Slebir a poster-sized image of him surfing on a massive wave at Mavericks and it hung in Slebir’s bedroom for well over a decade. The youngster often stared at the image, awestruck.
Slebir, an Italian-American who has dual citizenship, learned to speak Italian before he spoke English. Still, he conveyed his enthusiasm as a toddler.
“His English was a little funny,” John said. “Instead of saying, ‘tube,’ he’d say, ‘toooob.’ ”
By the time he turned 5, Slebir’s excessive love for tubes began to concern the couple.
For a while, he converted everything around the house into a breaking wave – napkins on the kitchen table, his bedspread and blankets, a mound of clothes …
“My wife wanted to take him to a psychiatrist,” John said. “I was also thinking, ‘Maybe he’s got a problem.’ He was a maniac like that. But some things are unexplainable.”
As Slebir got older, his circle of friends also surfed. It’s what you do in a coastal community, John said.
Wormhoudt also gifted Slebir several VHS surf videos from Powerlines Productions and the youngster watched them repeatedly.
When Slebir was 10, he took a pretty nasty spill at Steamer Lane. He was scared and shaken, so much so that locals called his parents and asked them to come get him.
The next day, John called his wife to check in on their son’s status while he was at school. To his surprise, she was at the beach, and their son was back in the water, not the classroom.
She called in sick for him.
“He needs to get back on the horse,” she told her husband.
YEARNING FOR MAVERICKS
Slebir competed in the Santa Cruz Scholastic Surf League in middle school and high school, and established himself on the area’s best breaks.
Still, he wanted more. He wanted Mavericks. The image of Wormhoudt on his wall tempted him daily.
“There’s not really any wave in the world like it,” Slebir said. “It’s our Mount Everest for somebody in California. I just always wanted to climb it.”
Thing is, Wormhoudt wanted no part of introducing Slebir to it.
“I did not offer to be his mentor,” Wormhoudt said. “There’s a lot of risk that gets glossed over with big wave surfing because of inflatable vests and stuff. There are some people out there who probably shouldn’t be. I’m surprised more people haven’t died out there. The reality is it’s a super dangerous sport. I didn’t feel comfortable supporting him in his first efforts. … Once he got accomplished, I went out with him.”
The Slebirs are also good friends with Scotts Valley’s Pat Shaughnessy, an accomplished paddleboarder and big wave surfer. He joined the Slebirs on a swim across Monterey Bay in 2013. The Slebirs not only like him, they trust him.
Shaughnessy took Slebir, then 14, under his wing at Mavericks, located a half mile offshore from Pillar Point Harbor, and taught him the ins and outs of the break, the location of the rocks, and the tradition.
“For the first years, you have to paddle out because it’s the ritual,” Slebir said. “You gotta pay your dues. And it’s a hard paddle out. It kinda filters out the people who can and can’t do it.”
Slebir went on to surf four years for Santa Cruz High – he also played on the golf team – and later attended UC Santa Cruz. He surfed four years for the Banana Slugs’ club team, too.
Every time Mother Nature obliged, he was back at Mavericks. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he got clearance from one professor to miss an online lecture so he could head up to Half Moon Bay for a big swell. Under one condition: He had to check in at the surf break on a hand-held device and prove he was there.
Slebir graduated from UCSC with a degree in legal studies. He’s currently working in construction but considering going back to college in a couple of years.
He’s enjoying surfing too much right now.
If a swell is projected, Slebir is on it. Before his historic ride at Mavericks, he checked Jaws in Hawaii off his list, a month later, he got back on a plane and headed to Mullaghmore Head in Sligo, Ireland, in anticipation of another large swell. Earlier this week, he surfed Nazaré.
“We just love to do this every season,” Slebir said. “It’s the best part of winter. I can’t wait for winter. Everybody can’t wait for summer, and I just love it when it’s dark, rainy, and scary.”
MASSIVE SWELL
The Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational was held Dec. 22 for just the 11th time in the past 40 years and featured 40- to 50-foot waves at Waimea Bay on Oahu’s North Shore.
Mavericks was the next big break to go off.
Neither iconic surf destination got the brunt of the storm, said Bill Sharp, event director for the Big Wave Challenge.
“That storm was historic,” he said, noting it was at its worst between Hawaii and the West Coast. “That produced some of the largest numbers since satellites have been used to measure ocean wind: 80-knot winds and 60-foot seas.”
The swell still wreaked plenty of havoc when it got to the West Coast. It caused a portion of the Santa Cruz Wharf to collapse into Monterey Bay, as well as millions of dollars in damage to boats in the Santa Cruz Harbor.
The surf conditions weren’t for everyone. In Santa Cruz, most recreational surfers left their board on the roof of their car and watched from the bluffs on West Cliff Drive in amazement. More advanced surfers took to heralded Steamer Lane in the morning, when it was still surfable, while others enjoyed glorious conditions at Swift Street and Stockton Avenue the entire day.
Surfline forecasts called for 25-foot waves at every major break from Monterey up to Half Moon Bay, but some of the sports’ biggest thrill-seekers checked the buoy readings and knew Mavericks had the potential to be bigger, the potential to be epic.
In addition to Slebir and Padua, Santa Cruzans Peter Mel, his son, John, Ryan Augustine, and Jack Snider, San Diego’s Jojo Roper, and Brazil’s Lucas Chumbo were among the surfers who wanted a piece of the action.
In total, eight to 10 surfers and three photographers were ushered out to the channel via jetskis or boat. Rescue personnel on jetskis were on hand, ready to assist.
“It’s funny, because we always say there’s no such thing as ‘small Mavericks.’ ” Slebir said.
Most big swells come with huge storms, which feature horrible conditions, heavy rain and southerly winds. Not this time.
WORTH THE RISK
Great conditions don’t make Mavericks any less menacing.
“The thing that makes Mavs so dangerous is the uneven bottom,” said local legend Peter Mel, a four-time finalist at the Titans of Mavericks, including the 2012-13 champion. “It’s 15 to 30 feet deep in some areas, and then there’s a cliff, and a waterfall. It’s the holddowns. I’ve only had one two-wave holddown in my life and the only place is Mavs. My longest holddown was 1 minute and 15 seconds.”
Most big wave surfers train themselves to hold their breath between 3-4 minutes.
“Sitting on your bed doing that is much different than trying to do that while being tossed around underwater,” Mel said. “Forty-five to 50 seconds seems like eternity.”
Big wave enthusiasts wear CO2 powered inflatable vests, but surfers try to use them only in the most dire of circumstances.
“Sometimes you can’t reach them,” said Slebir, of using the pull cords. “It’s so vicious, you physically cannot move your arms or legs or anything. You just gotta stay calm, relaxed and enjoy the ride. You try and ball up and keep your limbs close to you, because the sheer force can definitely do some damage to your limbs.”
As Slebir and Padua prepared for an eventful outing, the first thing they did in the channel was hold hands, bow their heads, and pray.
The rest of the day was a Godsend. The sets kept coming and everyone got a piece of the action.
“There were waves breaking in no man’s land,” said Peter Mel, 55, who has surfed the heralded break since he was 20. “The perfect wave out there is when it lifts up and burps. Everything grows over the bowl.”
Mel caught one of his biggest waves in the afternoon – “Sorry, groms!” he yelled to his buddies as the tow-in process began – and when he finished his ride, he settled in the channel, where he and others bore witness to Slebir’s magical, historic ride.
“It was not only one of the biggest, it had the most energy I’ve seen out there,” Mel said. “Ever.”
Slebir said surfers know which waves look special. They have a certain bend to them as they approach.
“This one just had the perfect wall, but we were also saying it looked almost like a closeout,” said Slebir, noting that he feared the entire channel would break. “But once the wave actually stood up, it was like a perfect triangle. So we whipped into the wave and I let go of the rope – and I’ve never gone that fast on a surfboard in my entire life.”
Padua told Slebir he was going 50 mph on his jetski and couldn’t catch up with the wave.
Footage of Slebir’s epic ride was posted on social media and, soon thereafter, shown on news outlets across the globe. His accomplishment was also featured in dozens of publications, among them, Sports Illustrated, The New York Post, Newsweek, Surfer Magazine, Yahoo! Sports, Forbes, and The Los Angeles Times.
Slebir’s feat also blew up in Australia and Europe. Italy went wild.
“He’s been to Italy about 35 times,” Slebir’s father said. “One of the articles got like 5.5 million views. They were trumping him as an Italian.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
Sharp, a former editor at Surfing Magazine in the 1980s, is considered one of the world’s foremost experts on big wave surfing. He’s said he feels bad for young surfers, like Slebir.
“They came up in an era after the collapse of the surf industry,” he said.
Sponsorships and big wave competitions are pretty much non-existent. The World Surf League’s Big Wave World Tour used to have a half dozen events on the calendar – swell permitting – but, now, just one remains: The Tudor Nazaré Big Wave Challenge in Portugal, which was held Tuesday. Slebir and Padua weren’t invited, but they showed up and surfed a day before the contest.
Another big wave event is The Eddie, which is loaded with Hawaiians and Waimea Bay regulars.
Peter Mel, who served as the first commissioner of the BWWT from 2014–2015, believes Slebir has improved his chances of getting invited to a big wave competition, especially since The Eddie has increased its competitor pool.
“Mavericks is one of the most difficult breaks in the world,” Mel said. “If you shine there, you can shine anywhere. It’s not just like this day (Dec. 23) he was special. He’s been earning his stripes out there.”
Sharp believes the exposure Slebir received for his possible record wave will help his cause immensely.
“One thousand percent,” Sharp said. “Alo has been a super respected local charger, and this put him into the global elite.”
Sharp is excited to see how the wave Slebir caught measures up. The official height won’t be known until a week before the 25th annual Big Wave Challenge Awards, which will be held at Lido Theater in Newport Beach on Sept. 13.
Sharp said Slebir’s ride is a serious contender for the “Men’s Ride of the Year” award, which includes a $10,000 prize.
“It reminded me of ‘100-foot Wednesday,’ ” said Sharp, referring to the epic swell at Mavericks on Nov. 21, 2001.
This one was different though. “It was beyond comprehension. Cartoonish,” Sharp said. “It was the perfect wave and Alo rode it like a 4-footer at Steamer Lane.”
Sharp caps video submissions at 100 per category, and then judges use photogrammetry to determine the height of the wave. Slebir and other surfers will be measured in various stances to help get the most accurate wave height reading possible.
Slebir said he doesn’t care if he gets the record.
“I’ve seen people ride giant waves, I’ve heard of people riding giant waves, and the world record thing, if it happens, that’s awesome,” he said. “It’s a cool thing to say, but is it the truth? Nobody really knows. Because there’s a lot of people out there that surf with no cameras and they might’ve caught a 120-foot wave or whatever. It’s a weird dynamic. It’s not like track and field where you have a timer, and that’s the fastest man in the world. Mother Nature is going to throw whatever it wants, wherever it wants, so that’s kinda how I look at it.”
Slebir doesn’t need an award or record to validate his experience.
“It was pretty awesome to be able to ride it,” he said. “Anybody could’ve rode that wave that day; everybody was well over capable of surfing it. I’m just happy I got to ride one of them.”
Slebir isn’t holding his breath, waiting for official results from Dec. 23.
But he is full of anticipation.
“I’m just more anxious to see when the next swell is gonna pop up,” he said.
What gifts will nature give him next?
