Aged just 16, the boy who rules the waves

Scot is youngest ever to surf monster 45ft swell off Portugal

ITS monstrous size towers over the lone surfer like a skyscraper about to collapse and engulf him at any second...

But this is the moment 16year-old Scot Ben Larg glided into the history books as the youngest surfer to ride a giant wave off the coast of Portugal.

The teenager, from the Hebridean island of Tiree, chalked up the amazing feat last week watched by cheering onlookers at Nazare, a fishing village which has become famous for its super-size waves.

Last night, still elated by surfing the 45ft wave – his biggest to date – Ben said: ‘It was epic and the reaction has been amazing. That’s the biggest wave I’ve ever surfed. When you start out there, you don’t know how big the wave is going to become. All of a sudden it just grows and suddenly it feels like going down a mountain or something. You’re just thinking about trying to make it all the way without falling off.

‘It’s definitely a real adrenaline rush when you’re in the middle of it. That one must have lasted about ten seconds but it was a good ten seconds.’

Ben, whose parents Marti and Iona run Blackhouse Watersports from a beach hut at Balevullin, Tiree, is the star of a documentary, Ride the Wave, which premiered at the London Film Festival and is due for release in cinemas in March.

It follows his travels across the world over the past four years in pursuit of his dream of surfing super-size waves at locations normally tackled only by experienced surfers.

But it also features heartwrenching scenes, including his mother describing how Ben was bullied at school, leading to their decision to home-school him and give him the freedom to travel and represent Scotland at key competitions.

The surfing sensation would go on to win the Scottish under18s title at the age of 12.

This month, he flew from Scotland to Portugal to stay with a friend who is an experienced big-wave surfer and had promised to take him under his wing at Nazare.

His father followed a few days later and was on the cliffs overlooking the spot when his son caught the massive wave.

‘My parents get really nervous but my dad is the worst. He was watching when I did it and was really pleased but said he was never coming back to watch me again,’ said Ben.

‘When you come off the wave, you go really far down, so far down my ears start to hurt.

‘I just try to stay calm and think about something stupid like what my mum’s cooking us for dinner to take my mind off it. Then you’re up and the jetski’s there to pull you to safety and you’re off back to the beach.’

‘It feels like going down a mountain’