Longest River Wave Ever Surfed in Orange County? (Video)

River wave surfing, the niche offshoot of traditional surfing, is surprisingly steeped in history – dating back to the seventies, and spawning out of the unlikely location of Munich, Germany, river surfing has been around for over 50 years.

And with the rise of YouTube, accompanied by a fascination with novelty waves propelled by the likes of Jamie O’Brien, Dylan Graves, Ben Gravy, Blair Conklin, et al, river waves have been en vogue, as of late. None, perhaps, more popular than the Waimea Bay river wave. However, there are many other freshwater standing waves out there.

Take, for example, the Aliso Creek river wave in Laguna Beach, CA. This one is riddled with controversy; there’s an ongoing battle between local surfers, who advocate for breaking the berm and letting the water flow, versus city officials who attempt to block such actions. Anyway, the surfers still prevail…most of the time. And one of the best to ride the Aliso Creek river is local Laguna skimboarder and soft-top aerialist, Blair Conklin. Here he is skimming his hometown novelty spot, and clocking an ungodly flow time on the wave.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Kz2vKAG52kE

James Ferrell, an Orange County surf photographer, captured the footage, prompting it with the query: “Longest river wave ever surfed?”

The river was cranking on this day, allowing for sizable standing waves, and lengthy rides. In the video, Conklin skims side-to-side for about one minute and 20-something seconds. Definitely one of the longer rides on a river wave, specifically at this location. But how does it stack up to the scoreboard of “longest ever” river wave rides?

Well, it just so happens that someone recently broke the Guinness World Record for the niche surfing achievement. Maximilian Neuböck, an Austrian wave-rider, recently broke the Guinness World Record for “longest time spent surfing a wave (male)” at The RiverWave, dubbed “Europe’s biggest artificial river wave.” How long did Neuböck spend surfing the standing wave? A thigh-crippling 8 hours, 5 minutes, and 44 seconds.

Of course, Austria’s RiverWave is a little different than Aliso Creek. It’s engineered to have waves flowing constantly, indifferent to the whims of mother nature. So, while Conklin’s ride was much shorter than Neuböck’s, there’s a caveat.

But still, Conklin’s ride was damn long. Impressive.