Winning a WSL Biggest Paddle Award is no easy task. For starters, you have to surf a very, very big wave. That alone is hard enough, but when you add into the mix the fact that a host of the world’s best big wave surfers are also hoping to win an award… well, it’s no easy task. It’s often a kind of lifelong endeavor, big wave surfing — if any part of surfing is well and truly a “lifestyle” it’s the big wave part.
It means putting yourself into potentially life-threatening situations relatively often and spending the time you’re not in those situations attempting to make them less life-threatening. Eli Olson is a person who puts in serious work, and that work paid off. In his most recent installment of his vlog, Olson tells the tale of how he got the 2020 Redbull / WSL Biggest Paddle Award and everything that went into riding the wave that won him the award. Turns out, you have to be tenacious, not only in your training and surfing, but in pretty much the rest of life as well.
See more from the WSL at Worldsurfleague.com
