Sumatra's epic tidal bore allows reported 12.8 mile ride

Comment Share Posted on Sunday February 24th 2013 at 3:33 p.m. Tweet

Steve King set a new world record by riding a wave 12.8 miles. He did it by going for a 64 minute surf on the Bono tidal bore on the Kampar River in Sumatra, Indonesia. It broke his own 2006 world record of 7.6 miles, which he did riding the River Severn’s bore.

"Breaking the record is fantastic. I only stopped when the wave finished." said King, 48 who hails from Saul, Glos. "We saw a couple of crocs which was scary. You certainly don't see them in the Severn.

Steve, a railway engineer, said: "I've been surfing for 30 years and the Bono on Kampar River was only discovered in recent years so I had to do it."

"The waves go up to 25mph and reach 10ft so they are three times as big as on the Severn. We saw a couple of small crocodiles and that was scary because where there are babies you're also going to find the mums. You certainly don't see them in the Severn. But we have surfed in the Amazon before where there dangerous animals but we try our best not to think about them."

Father-of-three Steve went on the trip with Bristol surfers Nathan Maurice, 36 and Stephen Holmes, 55, and French friend Fabrice Colas, 48, from Bordeaux. Local villagers cheered the group on during their week-long challenge in the South East Asian country last week. They surfed for six days with Steve managing 12.8 miles on the fifth day as he battled through extreme heat and 85 per cent humidity.