RIDE OF THE YEAR
Ramon Navarro – Waimea Bay
I have to say I love me some Ramon Navarro.  Humble Chilean surfer charges big waves in obscurity for years and then finally gets recognized for the South American, wait, scratch that, WORLDWIDE big wave legend that he is.  He is not my choice because I know him and like him.  No, he is my choice because this wave was huge and long (some of these other choices were ‘just drops’ and while I understand the thrill, there are other categories for this – i.e. see Grant Baker for Monster Paddle) and at one of my favorite venues- Waimea Bay and during the Eddie no less!  What more could you ask for?

It is worth mentioning that Mark Healy and Shane Dorian’s effort was equally impressive and their wave has been talked about by locals and lifeguards that witnessed it as one of the biggest waves at the Bay in recent history, but they are suffering from a bad photo angle – what a shame!  Why was no one else there?  It seems the Coast Guard was threatening a road closure and limiting access to Waimea. Too Bad boys, that may have cost you…

MONSTER TUBE
Mark Mathews – Secret Right
There’s just something about a whole entire ocean of water throwing over one’s head that makes me love these images (there’s 10 0f them on page 7).  Wow.  Makes me crap my 4 mil wetsuit.

You know what else?  They are not naming this spot, which means it is still relatively unknown.  Mystery adds something here, but even without it this one is a lock to me.  Expect Twiggy to get a lot of votes and come close, but this one goes to Mr. Mathews and his large set of cojones.

WIPEOUT
Grant Baker – Jaws
All of these wipeouts are ridiculous.  Most look life threatening to me.  It’s the car crash you have to see- a man’s limp body being ragdolled by the ocean’s fury. Three of them stand out for this reason.

1. Shane Dorian getting no love on Valentine’s day at Mavericks by hitting a speed bump and going over the falls for a two wave hold down.

2. Then you have Brook Phillips break dancing inside of a Shipsterns tube warble before swift ass kicking. And

3. Grant Baker doing a faceplant at the bottom of a Jaws Monster in the worst possible place and visibly watch him get hucked over the falls on a huge (and I mean huge) wave. This is his Christmas gift on December 25, 2009.

I picked Twiggy because it is the one that looks most horrifying to me.  Shane Dorian could win, but again he has a bad angle on his video that makes it look ‘less gnarly’, if that’s possible.  More on theses two in a minute.

MONSTER PADDLE
Grant Baker – Mavericks
In a year that saw ‘Paddle Power’ make a comeback, this will be a sweet win for a guy that loves using his own steam to get over the ledge.  No contest.  Twiggy wins.  Well done.

MENS PERFORMANCE
Grant Baker
While Mark Healy, Carlos Burle and Greg Long had epic sessions and charged some huge waves, this is really a two man contest in my opinion.

Shane Dorian deserves this award.  He was everywhere charging everything.  Unfortunately, he’s up against Grant Baker who just has too much momentum.  Grant’s dedication gives him the advantage (his travel schedule alone would kill a lesser man).  Twiggy seems to be everywhere in the world and his timing is flawless.  I swear there’s two of him surfing warm water mountains and cold water Peaks on massive bumps all over the planet.  You may get bored watching this guy take trophies every year, but no one deserves it more.

WOMEN’S PERFORMANCE
Maya Gaberia
Are we tired of seeing Maya win this award every year?  Male Surfers are yelling in unison ‘Hell NO!’ Maya Gaberia is so hot right now. Tough and sexy (or, tough is sexy) she has single handedly built this category and made it her own. In the process she continues to get better and push her boundaries. Her friendship with Tow partner Carlos Burle and her training regimens with fitness madman Kahea Hart aren’t going to hurt her either.  Expect her to win this year and every year until 2020.

*Unfortunately, I can not link the person, only the category, because the Billabong XXL site uses flash.  Someone please tell them that Flash is dead and to use a new format!

I received this press release from the Billabong XXL today (see below).  It describes what is being claimed as one of the biggest paddle-in waves ever at Waimea.  Unfortunately it doesn’t look like anyone got another angle than this side view.  I sure hope one turns up because  a front view of this would really put it in perspective.  Anyway, It is a monster and worth big congrats to Shane and Mark for an impressive display of bravado!

The photo here is of Kohl Christensen earlier that day (front view).  Kohl is one of the paddle guys.  He can usually be found in the gnarliest places when the surf is big.  I’ve seen him as a little spec on the horizon out at Himilayas as I drove by Lanis on many a large swell.  Sometimes he is by himself.  I was stoked to see him in the Eddie.  Now that I think about it, it was probably Kohl that was out paddling that tow-in spot my buddy was telling me about.  Cool.

NEWPORT BEACH, CA — (January 8, 2010) — The promise of the El Nino winter appears to have delivered for big wave surfers, as many long-standing records are ready to fall in this year’s Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards presented by Monster Energy.  And more than ever before, the Monster Paddle category (just for surfers who catch their waves without any jet ski assistance) has taken center stage as the elite of the sport refocus on this elemental man-against-the-sea tradition.  Visual evidence of these landmark performances can be viewed at the event website at www.BillabongXXL.com.

While huge swells have blasted nearly every coastline of the planet in recent months, it has been the Hawaiian Islands which have had the most mind-bending proof of the power of the current El Nino weather phenomenon.  December 7-8, 2009 saw one of the biggest swells in modern history batter the northern shores of the entire Hawaiian Chain, followed by another extraordinary day of outer reef waves on Christmas.  From these historic moments of oceanic grandeur have come images which show several top big wave surfers paddling into what may well be the biggest waves ever caught by human power in the long history of the sport.

Among these superlative rides is a massive dark wall caught by Shane Dorian and Mark Healey which closed out the legendary Waimea Bay on Oahu on December 7.  Also up for consideration is another mammoth peak at Waimea ridden by Chile’s Ramon Navarro which earned the South American hero a perfect score in the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau event on December 8. And more recently, grainy, documentary photos have arrived depicting Garrett McNamara paddling into a distant peak at Outer Log Cabins, a rarely-seen outer reef far off the North Shore shoreline, previously only the domain of tow-in surfers with jet-powered watercraft.

All are likely to figure prominently as finalists for the Monster Paddle Award to be given out at the tenth annual Billabong XXL Big Wave Awards to be held in California in late April.  A panel of big wave surfing and photography experts will analyze the available images and by interpreting the known sizes of the surfers and their surfboards, calculate reliable height estimates for the face of each wave.  One will emerge as the Monster Paddle winner and will receive $15,000 out of the total event purse of $130,000.

The current world record for a paddle-in wave belongs to Taylor Knox of San Diego, California who rode a wave measured at 52 feet at Todos Santos Island off of Ensenada, Mexico during the last major El Nino episode in 1998.  Many experts are expecting an update to the Guinness Book of World Records once this winter’s measurements are complete.

Dorian and Healey are veterans of decades of big wave hunting and both concur that their shared ride at Waimea was easily the biggest either had ever caught.  “I’d been waiting 15 years for that wave,” said Dorian, of Kona, on the Big Island. “That wave, we could see it from when it was like two or three minutes away from breaking, we could see the wave coming in, everybody’s screaming on the beach and yelling and stuff… When the wave finally came in, it was SO big.  The thing was a MONSTER.  We both put our heads down and started paddling and somehow we both caught it.

“I was going no matter what,” Dorian added. “And I know Mark felt the same way. It was just fun. A party wave — a wave of that size, and it was for sure the biggest wave I’ve ever paddled into, and to do it with my real good friend, it was very….memorable.”

Mark Healey has lived down the road from Waimea all his life and has been one of its most dedicated practitioners.  But he’d never seen waves like this.

“That was the biggest day I’ve ever had at Waimea,” said Healey.  “And that wave in particular was definitely by far bigger than anything I’ve ever caught out there, for sure.”

The wave was so large it closed out all the way across the Bay, not allowing the surfers the opportunity to kick out over the top of the wave as usual, and forcing them to straighten out and take the endless tons of whitewater on their heads.  But for Healey, a renowned freediver with the ability to hold his breath for over five minutes, it was a fun experience.  The longtime friends surfaced unharmed right next to each other, hooting with excitement.

“We were pretty stoked,” said Healey. ”Big waves are different, there’s a lot of brotherhood involved, stuff like that.  I’d rather have had Shane catch that wave than ride it alone.  It was cool to share a wave like that with a friend, and someone I look up to.”

McNamara, another North Shore stalwart, likes his own chances in the Monster Paddle derby.  A past winner of the XXL Paddle crown in 2007 for a huge wave at Northern California’s Maverick’s, “GMac” reckons his Outer Logs Christmas present was several notches larger.  “I don’t know how big it was,” McNamara said.  “But I do know it felt at least ten feet bigger than anything I’ve ever paddled into.  The Mavs wave a few years back was small compared to it….”

Remarkably, there may be much, much more to come.  This week the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center issued an alert confirming that the current El Nino episode had intensified in the last 30 days from “moderate” to “strong,” adding that the condition would exert a “significant influence on the global weather and climate in the coming months.”  And for surfers in the North Pacific basin, that means more enormous waves.  According to Surfline.com, major new swell events are lining up in the coming days, impacting the Hawaiian Islands around Monday and the West Coast around Wednesday of next week.