The Eddie did not go.
Eyeing a potential swell for Friday, February 16th, contest organizers of the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational at Waimea Bay put the event on yellow alert. But then, due to wind and timing issues on the peak of the swell, the contest was called off.
Bummer. But no matter, surfers still found a window to paddle out. Like Nathan Florence, below, who charged Waimea with a handful of friends, sans jerseys.
“There’s a big swell filling in today,” Nate explained. "It’s big enough that they considered running The Eddie, and they considered running Jaws. They didn’t run either, because the swell peaked in the night and it was onshore winds. So, they didn’t run either. But we have a warmup for The Eddie.”
By the afternoon, the swell cleaned up enough to give it a go. Although, it was still quite sketchy. Nate and a handful of surfers traded off wobbly, windy, and massive waves, getting their reps in with hopes that The Eddie will run sometime soon.
“It just kept getting bigger and bigger,” Nate said. “There were some mega sets, like 25-foot sets. Ended up being a super epic session. Big, wonky, windy, and large Waimea. Because it was a big storm, and a rising swell, and just kept getting bigger…not as big as we thought it was gonna get…we thought it might be nearly unmanageable.”
Nate continued:
“It didn’t get to that size. But it caused the crowd to thin out. It ended up just being literally me, Kai Lenny, Billy Kemper, John and Ivan, both my brothers…then Tome Lowe and [Grant] Twiggy [Baker] were out for a little bit. And Luke Shepardson [last year’s Eddie winner] came out and got a bomb. It was sick. Just a tight crew.”
Will The Eddie run this year? The contest window runs through March 12th, and requires a full-day of 40-foot swell. Big ask. Stay tuned.
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