Calif. construction worker unofficially broke a fabled world record
26 comments
·September 13, 2025rognjen
This site needs to be banned from HN. It's borderline spam employing every trick in the book to maximise your pageview.
Clickbait title, interstitial ads, floating vid, back jacking, newsletter, notification...
When I open the page it's only a third that's content -- and that's only the clickbait title.
What garbage...
xp84
While I agree that it's a trash site and an embarrassment to its roots as The Chronicle's website, anyone like yourself who notices how bad it is would do well to take it as a reminder that your adblocker is missing or not working. It appeared as though it were a normal site to me with ublock origin.
imoverclocked
Maybe we can just block the actual origin of the ads; No need for excess plugins.
apsurd
I'm going to read this article because the image is cool and I love California.
But I had to comment on how obnoxious this website is with my NextDNS mistakingly disabled. What have we done to the Internet! 3 popups to sign up for paid, newsletter and web alerts. scroll down to see auto playing videos, ridiculous full-banner ads.
wow
mikestew
Though The Chronicle is pretty bad, it is generally what I see when I surf without a Pi-Hole (or choose your fave ad-blocking tool). And, yeah, I honestly don’t know why people put up with it. I offered to put a Pi-Hole on my parent’s network. Mom wrote code for 30 years, she can handle the minimal intervention needed. Nope, they turned me down, they’re fine with things the way they are. First thing they did with that new TV was connect it to the Internet, too. For some folks, the slightest inconvenience is apparently enough to sit and look at ads all day.
Which reminds me that I need to pull a RPi off the shelf and provision another Pi-Hole for the camper now that there’s a Starlink attached. I’m not paying by the byte to have ads delivered.
hinkley
I still believe there must be space in the universe for an ethical ad network that makes you less money but anyone caught fucking with your readership gets banned. There’s a bunch of sites that would appreciate a little supplemental revenue but just don’t use ads at all because it’s so scummy.
It just has to be better than selling your nonprofit’s contact list to other nonprofits.
jedberg
When we first built the reddit ads system, this is exactly what we went for. We ran it ourselves, you could only upload a single static image.
Turns out you really can't make a lot of money that way. Especially now. If you don't offer re-targeting and bespoke ads, no one wants to pay you money for ads.
hdgvhicv
The question is in anyone actually reading it with those adverts?
apsurd
That's why I was compelled to post. We forget that this is how the Internet is for large portions of the population. It's bananas.
My dad still uses yahoo for all of his news. I've realized it's not uncommon to hear people use Yahoo as the front page of the internet still in 2025. I get it. Also, it's depressing. (left for the reader to see why. just go to yahoo with blockers off).
jmclnx
FWIW, I use noscript and had no issues. Granted there were some blank spots which I guess where ads.
coldpie
More tips to make the Internet suck less here: https://www.smokingonabike.com/2025/08/01/tips-for-making-th...
apsurd
Yep, I've found blocking at at the dns level more convenient since I'd otherwise have to install script blockers per web-browser. I'm very happy with nextdns
I wanted to add that every time I use the internet without a blocker, it's so depressing to realize this is how a lot of people, mostly older, experience the Internet. Very sad as someone in the industry.
chrisweekly
Reader mode works wonders for me.
apsurd
ooh you're right, reader mode is great for this article. thanks
It doesn't always work though, I assume the major publishers are employing some counter-measures. Also generally javascript heavy websites.
strbean
It's so surprising that we don't use a precise method of gauging wave height for these records. AFAIK they still estimate the surfers height while riding, and then count those heights up the side of the wave in a photograph.
I'd imagine we would have a method closer to surveying techniques by now.
metalman
there is a new, exotic method for measuring gigantic waves, that uses atmospheric disturbances to gps signals and gravity waves that ocean waves generate. SWOT
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/swot/us-french-swot-satellite-...
ungreased0675
Photography of the surfers seems to be an important aspect of the scene. It’d be interesting to read a story about that.
bix6
In water photography is especially wild. Check out Leroy Bellet: https://www.surfertoday.com/surfing/the-story-behind-leroy-b...
He rides BEHIND surfers in the barrel. Absolutely nuts.
throwup238
It’s how the size of the waves is calculated. They talk about it in the first season of the 100 Foot Waves TV show mentioned in the article. Video from several angles is analyzed using the surfer or another known object for scale.
It’s not easy to measure ocean waves unless you have a jetski riding right on the crest or a LIDAR system on shore which is expensive.
yostrovs
The underground rock formation that generates the Mavericks waves is actually pretty small. Photographers, rescue jetskis, and onlookers on small boats can be on very calm water, while surfers they're watching are riding a 100 ft wave just a few meters away.
dsalzman
There's a series called 100 ft wave on HBO. Great overview of the big wave community.
throwaheyy
Also recommend the documentary Riding Giants.
bix6
Surfing is the best! Big ups Alo shaka
The article appears a few days old since it was before they had the awards. Apparently they had the Big Wave 2025 awards two days ago, and declared that his wave was "only" 76 feet, but he did win the award for Biggest Wave for this year.
Source: (also the awards show is embedded here as a video)
https://www.coastsidenews.com/review/news/santa-cruz-surfer-...