Surfingtoday

On January 22, 2023, the rider broke her own record by taking her windsurfer into a massive 40-foot (12.19 meters) at Jaws/Peahi in Maui.

Hauser, who was born in New Caledonia and lives in Hawaii, improved her previous mark by four feet (1.2 meters) set on December 31, 2019.

"I broke the record on the day The Eddie Aikau Invitation was running on Oahu," explained the Guinness World Record holder.

"In ten years of going out to Peahi, this was the most treacherous I'd ever seen."

"The buoy readings were the biggest I've ever seen: 27 feet at 19 seconds. The waves peeled like hungry jaws."

"Thankfully, Keith Teboul and the whole Quatro team poured all their knowledge and experience into building me a Jaws board, which made all the difference."

"I had spent the previous days with Goya sail designer Jason Diffin reviewing sail settings and making sure every detail was right."

Sarah Hauser raised the bar of women's big wave windsurfing one day amidst personal struggles.

"There are so many people and so many stories behind one wave," adds the 2023 International Windsurfing Tour (IWT) wave vice-world champion.

"Like how a week before, Adam Lewis, Jason Cantor, and I were stopped in our tracks while we were heading out to Peahi, but our ski broke down at Upper Kanaha, and we had to get rescued."

"Or how Kevin Pritchard, Robby Swift, and I barely made it out of Maliko only to realize we were missing a piece of equipment and had to play the Maliko Russian roulette again to go back for it."

"Or how Casey Hauser and I found out the day before that he had Leukemia - that last one was definitely heavy."

"Having the love of my life threatened by cancer and being by his side to support him as he fights it back, that's the biggest ride of my life."

"Bigger than any scary wave I have ever caught."

"But in the end, the same rules apply: you do your best with what you can control, and you let go of the rest, you lean on your ohana to learn what you don't know, and to move forward, you look for the beauty in the challenges."

"Our flight to LA, where Casey and I had to go for his biopsy, wasn't until the evening."

"Thanks to Robby and Kevin, I had an opportunity to go to Peahi, so I went."

"There are so many entangled thoughts when you become a caretaker."

"Guilt, selflessness, worry, fear. It's sometimes hard to hear one's intuition, but for some reason, it was clear on that day."

"We then flew to LA, where Casey started chemotherapy right away and continued with different treatments for another year or so."

"I split my time between Maui and LA to support him as best as I can. It's a tough road, but we got this."

"More than anything, I think I'm proud of myself for simply going out that day even though it was the heaviest day of my life."

"Dreaming big makes me feel alive. It's true when things are good but especially when things aren't."