Kai Lenny at Jaws, Nov. 26, 2018. Photo: WSL / Sarrow
It’s that time of year again. The surf world closes the books on another season of big wave surfing, we take a moment to convene and celebrate everybody’s madness, and then send them all back out to hunt down massive waves again.
On Thursday, the WSL announced its final nominees for the 2019 Big Wave Awards, adding that they’ll announce a new world record for the largest wave ever paddled by a woman at the May 2 ceremony. Two of the eight category nominees, the Men’s Overall Performance Award and Women’s Overall Performance Award, are still under review, according to the WSL.
Of the six categories with its finalists determined Thursday, 11 nominations in both men’s and women’s categories were waves ridden on November 26, 2018, at Jaws. The significance of that day, you might remember, is that Jaws wreaked havoc on both the men’s and women’s Big Wave Tour competitors before WSL Big Wave commissioner, Mike Parsons shut the whole operation down for the second half of the day. As you’d expect, competition or no competition, plenty of people turned in their jerseys for tow ropes and jet ski rides. In total, three Men’s Ride of the Year nominations, three Men’s Biggest Wave nominations, two Wipeout of the Year nominations, two Men’s Paddle nominations, and one Women’s Paddle nomination came from that day (both in and out of competition).
“It just felt like the 20-second energy was overloading the reef,” Parsons said at the time. “We had our water patrol at max capacity. Every ski was on the inside. It was tough to keep track of every surfer to make sure they were coming up. I felt like it was getting too dangerous so we’re calling it off.”
The move brought out some mixed feelings in the community. Billy Kemper and Grant Baker earned Ride of the Year and Paddle Award nominations in their heat that day. Kai Lenny went out that afternoon and put on one of the best big wave tow performances anybody can remember in a single session, including a Ride of the Year and XXL Biggest Wave nomination, and more than a few people debated if the call to postpone competition was either premature or even necessary. A handful of competitors and big wave royalty were asked that night if the WSL should consider adding tow surfing to the Big Wave World Tour after seeing how the day had played out.
“I’ll answer your questions with a couple of my own,” Dave Kalama told The Inertia at the time. “Is it called the ‘Pretty’ Big Wave Tour? Is it called the ‘Prone’ Big Wave Tour? I know those are rhetorical questions but they illustrate that the answer is already there in the question. It’s called the Big Wave Tour, so give it the flexibility to deliver just that. The ability to ride whatever comes.”
In the end, the WSL still squeezed plenty of juice out of a day they chose not to finish the Jaws Challenge, pulling a significant chunk of its Big Wave Awards honors from it. Win-win, to say the least.
And on the outside looking in at all of it are three surfers, according to Albee Layer: himself, Nic Von Rupp, and Bianca Valenti. Layer took the announcements as an opportunity to share how he thinks we should view, celebrate, and reward big wave surfing accomplishments. He also shared clips of the waves he felt should have been included in the nominations but weren’t.
“Taking nothing away from any of the surfers nominated, they are all the best of best obviously but in my opinion falling shouldn’t count and towing shouldn’t be compared to paddling,” he wrote. “I can’t believe @biancavalenti and @nicvonrupp waves were nowhere (as well as my wave but that’s probably just narcissism). I swear this needs to change, just for the longevity of our sport as a whole. We should encourage the next generation to SURF big waves not survive them. Just one persons thoughts on a subjective sport…”
For anybody that’s either been to the annual awards show or watched from home, it’s a pretty great moment every year. If anybody deserves to be celebrated for advancing the sport by showing the world what’s possible, it’s the big wave community. They were the driving force in bringing equal pay to the WSL, and by-and-large, the athletes focused on a big wave career pursue it all with far less security and support than those that end up on the CT. On May 2 we’ll hear some acceptance speeches about the year that was and shout outs to the people who don’t get called to the podium but deserve recognition, and apparently, we’ll have a new world record holder for the women; Paige Alms, Justine Dupont, or Andrea Moller. Gripes or not, it’ll just set the stage for everybody to go out and ride something bigger in 2019, which is exactly why we always tune in.
Editor’s Note: The entire list of nominees by category, including photos and videos of the waves themselves, can be found here.
Andrea Moller at Jaws, one of three Women’s Paddle World Record nominations. Photo: WSL/Pompermayer
