Crowded curl

With 47 top surfers packed onto one board, who gets to call the shots? “The problem is once that baby gets going, it’s not going to listen to any one surfer,” says Australian board shaper Nev Hyman, who built the 40-foot foam and fiberglass monster.

But the operative phrase here is “gets going.”

Hyman’s board -- which is essentially a 6-foot design that he scaled up by using a computer shaping program -- made its debut before a crowd of about 10,000 at the Quiksilver Pro surf fest at Australia’s Snapper Rocks in March.

About 100 kids waxed the board before it was taken out. Many of the world’s top surfers piled on for the tow out to the action, but as two Jet Skis pulled forward, a big wave hit.

“The board got pulled out through the surf, and people were falling off left, right and center,” Hyman says. About 10 remained on the board with the rest of the pack swimming furiously to catch up. During a flat water lull, the surfers hoisted themselves back on and got ready for the big ride.

This time, everybody was in place. The tow lines were cut, a wave hit and the 47 riders surfed a whopping 150 feet -- far enough to snag Guinness World Record titles for longest surfboard and the most surfers riding a wave on one surfboard.

Hyman plans to bring the board to Huntington Beach in July for the U.S. Open of Surfing.

-- Mary Forgione