We need to be honest. We really missed the NCAA basketball tournament this year that was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The brackets, the drama, the CBS “One Shining Moment” recap. So to make up for it, we created a tournament of our own: April Radness. We pitted the world’s best waves against one another on our Instagram account (here) so you could vote for your favorites, the gems of the wave-riding world (above).
There were some hard-fought battles, some last second wins, and some upsets. G-Land took down Uluwatu in a tight one before meeting its match in Teahupoʻo, which then took out Cloudbreak before going down to Pipeline (which destroyed Honolua Bay on its way to the semis) in a hotly-contested match up between two of the world’s most feared barrels.
On the other side of the bracket, the world-wide respect of J-Bay has shown through as the iconic right-hander cruised through by beating Skeleton Bay in a surprise upset over the upstart Namibian legend, then took down Anchor Point and Hossegor in relatively easy fashion to reach the finals.
Now it’s Pipeline (photographed by Nate Smith) and J-Bay (shot by Tye Jordaan) meeting in a winner-take-all final. Watch our Instagram page now to get your vote on to decide the best wave in the world in our April Radness bracket. No, we didn’t have March Madness. But we had something else entirely. And it was awesome.
See the rest of the waves and the gifted photographers who captured them in their finest form, above.
