Surfing
Laura Crane: Making Waves
Laura Crane’s journey from Croyde to Nazaré has been anything but straightforward. But it's given her the strength to take on giants.
It’s a grey, choppy February day in Nazaré, Portugal, home to the world’s biggest waves, and 30-year-old surfer Laura Crane hasn’t competed in more than a decade. She’s being towed by jet ski into a wall of water, the first British woman to qualify for a top-level World Surf League (WSL) event and the first to have ever ridden walls of water the size of tower blocks here at North Beach. She holds the rope and readies herself to drop in, feeling fear but trusting in the programme of gruelling resilience training she’s put herself through to get here.
“In the face of that fear,” she says afterwards, “all I can do is trust I’ve done the training, trust I have a good breath hold, trust I know what to do.” Crane also knows what comes next, when she’s flying across the water at speeds comparable to a car on a motorway, propelled by hundreds of tonnes of volatile ocean power. “It’s past excitement; it’s euphoria. You’re not even in this world. Or you’re in it more than ever, so connected to everything, purely in the moment.” even in this world. Or you’re in it more than ever, so connected to everything, purely in the moment.”
There’s definitely a few of us who see the Atlantic as our power. It made me really tough.
The waves aren’t huge by Nazaré standards – today, they’re the size of a house rather than a skyscraper – but the water is bumpy and wild enough to challenge the world’s best. The first time she catches a wave, Crane has already made history, but she doesn’t hold on for long. Then, about 15 minutes in, she gets a chance to show what she’s made of, charging fast and surfing a daring line, turning into the most critical part of the wave as the crest foams over her head.
Raised on Waves: Laura Crane, 2025
© Amelia Pemberton
Her strength and power are clearly visible, but when a chop of backwash hits her on her second turn it sends her flying. She’s unable to get her front foot out of the strap it’s wedged into, and she feels her ankle break before she even hits the water. Distracted, Crane doesn’t take a breath or pull the cord on her impact vest before the colossal wave breaks on top of her. But her training kicks in and she makes it to the surface in one piece, managing to haul herself onto the sled attached to the jet ski driven by her competition partner, Tony Laureano.
At this point, most people would focus on getting back to dry land, but Crane insists on switching roles with Laureano and towing him onto a couple of waves. Driving a jet ski in these conditions is a skill that’s arguably as hard as surfing itself, and it’s a requirement for competitors in the Big Wave Challenge. “I’ve got five minutes in me,” she remembers saying. “I need to show that I can put you on a good wave and pick you up on the inside. Until then, I’m not fucking going anywhere.” Bouncing around on the ocean with a smashed-up foot was “hell”, Crane says, but she still counts the day as one of the best of her life.
Crane started surfing at six in Croyde’s cold Atlantic waters, north Devon
© Amelia Pemberton
As she tells the story a few days later, the surfer exudes positivity and determination; it’s clear that psychological resilience is one of her defining qualities. It’s something that she works on daily, Crane explains, which means 5am ice baths as well as punishing workouts. “Big-wave training is about putting yourself through as much hell as possible,” she says. “We train our minds to feel comfortable in uncomfortable situations. It sounds horrible, but it gives you a sense of inner trust that you can get yourself through really tough things.”
Growing up in the UK helped develop this muscle. Crane started surfing at the age of six in the cold Atlantic waters of Croyde, north Devon, where, she says, “we’d probably get one or two decent days a month”. The location isn’t as famous as some of the hotspots in nearby Cornwall, but it can serve fast, barrelling beach-break waves at low tide. Most globally prominent surfers are from tropical spots with daily access to perfect turquoise tubes, rather than chilly English fishing villages. But, Crane says, “if there was one thing I was never scared of, it’s hard work. There’s definitely a few of us who see the Atlantic as our power. It made me really tough”.
Big-wave surfing is past excitement; it’s euphoria. You’re not even in this world.
At 30, Crane also has a deeper, hard-won strength that comes from not only the ordeals she’s chosen but also those she didn’t. She gained her first high-profile sponsorship at the age of 12, after becoming British champion, but her surfing career “didn’t take the route that I dreamed it would”, she says. “The value they saw in female surfers back then was: if you look good, you’re going to sell something, and if we can put you in less clothes, you’re going to sell even more. For a 12-year-old girl, that was pretty hard to swallow. I turned from being this go-getting athlete to an Instagram bikini model within about three years.
Spray time: Crane rides Nazaré’s waves
© Helio Antonio
“They were dangling this carrot: you can have your dreams, but to get them you have to completely lose yourself. So your dreams change. They make you feel like you should be grateful to have that space in the industry. It really, really broke me. I developed an eating disorder that ran my life for 15 years.” When she retired from surfing at 21, she explains, “it got to a point where I was being sick eight times a day and I couldn’t physically keep food down. I was completely broken. Every single part of me had been taken away”.
I want the girls who come after me to be exactly who they are.
Struggling to find a new identity, Crane moved to London, appeared on the reality dating show Love Island and tried her hand as a sports TV host. Then, in 2018, she suffered a major health crisis when she contracted life-threatening sepsis following surgery to remove a cyst on her fallopian tube. “I almost died,” she says. “Like, really fucking close. That was the moment I realised that no one except me knows what’s good for me. I quit all the TV shit and moved back to Devon. I got therapy for my eating disorder for the first time, and that was when everything really changed. I learned that I’d been through some intense trauma, and I slowly started to regain my power.”
At home, Crane saw her younger brother getting stoked to surf on “shitty two-foot waves” and, inspired by his excitement, she tentatively returned to the water. A trip together to a rare, chunky big wave in Cornwall known as the Cribbar ignited a new passion for the big-wave scene with its emphasis on guts, grit and muscle. Former World Championship Tour surfer Éric Rebière got in touch and offered to teach her how to tow-surf, saying that she was built for the discipline. “It was the first time I’d ever seen a man in the industry value my body for its strength,” Crane says. “I realised that maybe I did actually have a space in this world.”
Buoyed by an excitement that she hadn’t felt since she was a kid, Crane decided to take the £40,000 she had saved from her TV work, drive her entire life from Devon over to Nazaré, buy a jet ski and start pursuing a new dream, this time on her own terms. “No one could take it from me this time,” she says. “No one could tell me how to fucking do it. I was going to pay for it; it was my journey. For the first time in my surf career, I was really proud of myself. I was following the path that I was meant to be on.” That’s not to say the path is easy. The number of women in big-wave surfing at a high level remains tiny, and there are still plenty of battles to fight. During the contest, you can hear a commentator on the WSL’s livestream, unaware of Crane’s ankle break, saying that “it must be a huge challenge” for her to drive a jet ski for her partner, and expressing surprise when she does so smoothly. “We’re in a male-dominated world,” Crane says. “Naturally, they believe women shouldn’t drive. I’m still met with, ‘You shouldn’t do this, you’re a girl.’ But now I just have this little smirk on my face, like, ‘You’ll see.’”
She acknowledges that those who came before her had to fight even harder to be taken seriously. The current world record for the biggest wave surfed by a woman is held by Brazilian Maya Gabeira, who rode a 73.5-footer (22.4m) in Nazaré in February 2020. This achievement came seven years after Gabeira lost consciousness and almost drowned in the same spot – an accident that prompted Kelly Slater to DM her shortly afterwards, suggesting she should quit before she died.
After placing third at Nazaré, Crane sets sights on higher goals
© Amelia Pemberton
“[Gabeira] pioneered the big-wave scene for women,” Crane says. “She was here in Nazaré 10 years ago, when men were telling her that big waves were not a place for women. She fought for that record. Us three girls who are at the top now want to keep pushing that limit, and we’re getting incredibly close, but I don’t think any of us want to take that record off her until it’s really ready to be broken.”
It was Gabeira who won the women’s contest at Nazaré in 2024, but in January this year she announced her retirement at 37. The following month, France’s Justine Dupont took the 2025 title, with Brazilian Michelle des Bouillons in second and Crane, the big-wave newcomer, third. “I’m super-hungry for next year,” Crane says now as she focuses on rehabbing her ankle, maintaining her strength, and planning trips to Brazil and the Maldives before returning to Portugal in autumn. “My biggest goal going into this season was to learn how to drive [a jet ski] and then maybe do the contest the following year. I’ve had an incredible season, and I just can’t wait to give it another shot.”
All’s swell: Crane trains in Nazaré with jet‑ski pro Eric Rebiere
© Helio Antonio
While her goals for the future definitely include winning the contest, Crane says, she also places great importance on helping the women’s big-wave scene continue to grow. Already, a few days after this year’s competition, 18-year-old Scot Robyn Larg – sister of pro surfer Ben – became the second British woman, and the youngest ever, to ride Nazaré’s ultra-gnarly waves. Rather than feeling threatened, Crane is excited by this sign of progress. It’s part of the reason she wants to get her own story out there, with all the lows as well as the highs: “I want the girls who come after me to be exactly who they are, from start to finish. No confusion. Just go and get your dream.”
When she arrived in Nazaré, Crane benefitted from the support of the women already surfing there, and she’s ready to pay this forward. “I’m so proud that in our little crew of big-wave girls we understand we have to be in this together. Yes, we’re athletes and we’re competitive, but when push comes to shove we’ve got each other’s backs. We have our own voices, and no one can stop us now.”
Rising Together: Laura Crane’s Mission to Lift Women in Big-Wave Surfing
© Amelia Pemberton
Going large: Key moments in the evolution of women’s big-wave surfing
- 1959 Californian Linda Benson, aged just 15 at the time, catches a 20ft (6m) wave in Oahu, Hawaii, making her one of the first recorded female big-wave surfers.
- 2016 Paige Alms is crowned the first-ever women’s big-wave champion at the Pe‘ahi (Jaws) Challenge on her home island of Maui.
- 2019 The WSL rolls out equal prize money for men and women in all divisions.
- 2021 The first in-person Red Bull Magnitude – an all-women big-wave competition, judged on videos only on its launch in 2020 – takes place in Hawaii. Keala Kennelly from Kauai wins the Biggest Wave and Overall Winner awards.
- 2020 Brazilian Maya Gabeira achieves a world record by surfing a 73.5ft (22.4m) wave at Nazaré.
- 2023 Aussie surfer Laura Enever breaks the paddle-in record by catching a 43.6ft (13.3m) wave at the outer reefs of Oahu’s North Shore.
- 2025 Laura Crane becomes the first British woman to compete in a WSL big-wave contest.
This interview is taken from Raised on Waves, a 148-page Red Bulletin special featuring surf stories from the UK and Ireland, on sale now at UK newsstands and on Amazon.
Crane’s pre-game
