Taj Burrow Wins the World’s Most Luxurious Surf Contest

But it couldn’t have come at a better time. Just a day before Finals Day, local Ahmed “Ammaday” Agil said: “This is the biggest Sultans I've ever seen. I can’t remember a time when it was this massive. I mean, it’s not huge, by, like, regular standards, but for Maldives standards, this is big, And these sets…it’s bombing out there. Like huge.”

And it remained that way for Finals Day, too. Perhaps a foot or two smaller, but still. So, during the big day, the contest organizers broke protocol and decided to run the thruster division – just so the competitors could have a little more oomph in the heavier conditions. But on Finals Day, it was the twin-fin event. And as one might expect, everyone thought Mikey February – a trained twinnie connoisseur – would win. He did.

That meant, he met Taj Burrow in the final.

But that’s where Taj – who scored the one Perfect 10 of the contest earlier in the day; “It was a bit of a blur…it was a full freight train, and I was screaming on this twinnie. It was the perfect little cylinder." – got the better of Mikey. It was close, though. Mikey needed a score at the end and he almost got it. Still, Taj had the scores he needed for the W.

“I don’t think I’ll ever put on a jersey again,” Taj told SURFER after the win, and between his kids pawing at his shins. “That was probably the most fun I’d ever had in a contest. It’d have to be. Perfect waves, with one other guy in the water. It was incredible. And we’re staying at the Four Seasons. I wouldn’t change a thing, mate, it was perfect."