Tahiti's most famous wave is Teahupoo (Cho-pu) which translates to english as "broken skulls". A left break that is created by cyclonic swells being pushed onto a reef. The water depth starts at approx. 400ft and over the next 580 yards, it becomes 6ft. This forces a deep sea swell to have no where to go but up into the air forming a wall of water up to 32ft high. In swell that size, a surfer will die if they fall. A pro surfer, Briece Taerea, was "sucked over the falls" and slammed into the razor sharp reef by a mere 15ft wave. He broke both his neck and back in 3 places, went into a coma and died two days later. The lip of the wave is so thick it creates ripples in nearby deep water channels as it hits the reef. While not being the biggest wave, Teahupoo is one of the most perfect and adrenalin pumping waves in the world.
On another note, in slow-mo it sounds like the surfer is being cheered by a herd of cows.