Heaviest wave ridden by a woman

Teahupo‘o – Keala Kennelly has caught one of heaviest Teahupo‘o bombs ever by a female surfer. The veteran surfer from Kauai followed an XXL swell hitting Tahiti and scored the wave of a lifetime.

The massive waves were detonating onto dry reef as Kennelly waited for her wave.

Immediately after being towed-in to the bomb of the session, the 36-year-old knew what she had in her hands.

“I passed on a much smaller one that had some chop on the face and when I saw that one standing up I knew it was going to be a bomb so I was like ‘okay, this is it. “This one is for you Salope.

“Salope is a nickname I call a dear friend of mine who is battling cancer,” she said.

“I let go of the rope and I dropped down into it. I had to come into it real straight on because when it sucks below sea level it creates this trench that you don’t want to come at sideways. Once I got through that trench I bottom turned up into the barrel and stuck to my line.”

“I felt like I had a good line and was pretty determined to make it and right then the wave turned mutant, the bowl bent at a 45 degree angle back at me right as the bottom of the wave dropped out and it swallowed me whole. I got a pretty serious beat down,” she said.

It was a serious beat down. The Hawaiian got smashed down onto the reef pinned on her back and held there for awhile. Then she came up and got a breath just in time to get the wave behind it on the head.

“That one slammed me on the reef with a lot of force the whole left side of my body hit really hard. Felt like I broke my elbow and my hand. At first I couldn’t move my hand but after awhile I started to be able to wiggle my fingers so that was a good sign and by then I had washed into the lagoon and the jet ski came and got me.”

Kennelly wanted to go back for more but she was bleeding and in a lot of pain.

When she got back to the boat her friend Brent Bielmann was claiming it was the heaviest wave by a female surfer ever.

Kennelly was seriously injured at Teahupo‘o in 2011, hitting the reef in a wipeout and requiring 40 stitches to her face and skull.