There are a myriad of reasons the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau is surfing’s most prestigious event. We all have our own explanations for it, and I’ll throw this one into the mix: it parallels surfing’s appreciation of the fleeting moment. Few things in life force us to soak up a singular moment for its uniqueness unlike riding a wave that will never be duplicated, never be ridden again, or experienced by another human being. Your next wave might be the best you’ll ever see, feel or ride. And that little nugget of faith alone is enough to keep running back to the ocean until the day you kick the bucket – all with the understanding that it may never be this good again, this big, this glassy, this hollow.
Big wave contests are really the only formal celebration of those qualities, but the Eddie takes it to a whole new level by setting a baseline standard of competition that’s rarely met. In a little more than three decades’ time the contest has run on average once every three and a half years. That number is actually lowered significantly by the fact that half of the Eddie’s eight events came in a six year span between 1999 and 2005. So yes, a green light for the Eddie is a pretty rare and special moment. 2009 may not seem that long ago, but some things have changed drastically since that last contest held at Waimea Bay. To raise the appreciation just a little more going into this year’s event and put it all into context, here are some facts, tid bits and a little bit of trivia of what life (and surfing) was like in 2009 – the last time we watched a Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau:
-A 25-year old Greg Long became the contest’s 8th Champion.
-Instagram was still 10 months away from its launch.
-John John Florence was a fresh faced 17-year old and Gabriel Medina was less than two weeks away from his 16th birthday. We were still two years away from watching either win a ‘CT event for the first time.
-Mick Fanning won his 2nd World Title that year on what was then the ASP WCT.
-Apple’s iPhone 3GS was the pinnacle of the smartphone.
-You had just discovered your most meaningless and empty obsession with a little game known as Farmville, with 62 million people joining the game just months after its launch on Facebook.
-Kelly Slater was still in pursuit of double digit World Championships, sitting with nine in his career.
-Andy Irons was one of the contest’s surfers, only less than a year before he would pass away.
