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via SFGate.com:

Think you can surf a 78-foot wave?

Garrett McNamara did, and broke the Guinness World Records for the largest wave ridden for more than a foot.

But the 44-year-old Hawaiian pro surfer had no intentions to do so when he woke up that morning in Portugal, the Associated Press reports.

McNamara soon changed his mind after some encouragement from friends. Luckily he listened, because the 5-foot-10-inch surfer made it through the ginormous wave tube just as the swell smoothed out.

The Associated Press reports:

“I knew it was big, but I didn’t know how big,” he said.

McNamara said he didn’t care at first about whether the wave was a record, but was urged by the townspeople in Nazare, Portugal, to get some kind of confirmation. He said he sent the footage and pictures to surfing legend and Billabong judge Sean Collins, who guessed the wave was 85 to 90 feet tall. Collins died in December.