Caught on Tape: Top Surfer Braves Biggest Waves at Puerto Escondido, Mexico in Recent History

While most people suffer the occasional big wave, open ocean nightmare here and there, surfers like Mark Healey dedicate their lives to hunting down the biggest, heaviest waves in the world to score the ride of a lifetime.

That's why it was no surprise that Healey was amongst the few surfers that made their way to Mainland Mexico when the largest swell, in at least two decades, slammed the coastline at Zicatela Beach in Oaxaca.

While the rest of the town was avoiding flooded roads and locking up local businesses, Mark Healey made his way into the lineup at Puerto Escondido, one of the heaviest beach breaks in the world.

On May 3, 2015, the Hawaii native used his own physical strength (no tow assist) to ride, what most are calling, the biggest wave ever paddled into at Puerto Escondido.

Producer NamHee Han of Local Style, an eco-travel surf and lifestyle show, caught the history-making wave on tape. Listen as Mark Healey describes the swell that day, and the thoughts that were racing through his mind as he dropped into a massive wave at Puerto Escondido.

As Healey explains, 'Domingo Grande' was the biggest swell at Puerto Escondido that he has seen in his lifetime. Looking back into the history of surfing, big wave surfers certainly haven't always been attempting paddle-ins on days like this, so it's almost certain that Healey's wave is the largest ever paddled into at Puerto Escondido.