For a while this award was kind of looked down on, as all sorts of yahoos with 4-stroke engines started muscling in on the scene. It was almost a horsepower contest more than a surfing contest, until things started getting really serious with Nazaré. The waves got bigger and the consequences started adding up. Then the surfers started performing on these waves instead of racing bow-legged to the channel, and this category regained its legitimacy
Here are the 2017 nominees.
Trevor Carlson at Nazaré
The Hawaiian roof salesman has gone and done what he set out to do – make a name in the big wave scene. With multiple entries in the 2017 Big Wave Awards his approach of dedicated training, relentless swell chasing and remorseless charging has seen him arrive. This entry at Nazaré is a monster left, and he finds a nice little run-in for a clean entry on one of the biggest waves ridden.
Kai Lenny at Jaws
With Lenny it’s not so much about the size of the waves (which are huge might I add) it’s more about the way he simply toys with these monsters as if they’re your average little beachbreak. The best thing about this approach is that, when everyone else is speed trimming in a desperate race to the channel, he’s cutting back, looking for lips, doing airs. Even if it doesn't win for the biggest wave Kai should be recognized for the flair he is showing in big waves. He actually said, in a recent WSL interview that his goal was to surf giant waves like they were small waves.
Francisco Porcella at Nazaré
This is most definitely one of the craziest waves of the season for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is positively huge. It is mountainous. It is massive. Secondly, for a wave of that size and girth, it’s pretty wind blown and messy. It’s had to comprehend that there were people out on a day like that, chasing bombs. Thirdly, the ride seems to go on forever. The Italian gets in quite early, but he is way behind the peak and he streaks across the open face before getting to the bottom of the wave ad riding it all the way across the Nazaré lineup to the beachbreak. Finally, not ready to rest on his laurels of any sort, Porcella nearly does a reentry off the whitewater coming towards him. One kind of wished that he did, but it would have been too much to deal with on a wave like this.
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Sebastian Steudtner at Nazare
The multi-winning German from Nuremberg lucked into this absolute behemoth on one of the cleanest big wave days of the year at Praia Do Norte. He has won such awards before for a similar wave at Nazaré, as well as a crazy big wave award in 2010 for a 66-foot wave ridden left at Jaws. He also won this very award in 2015 for a wave ridden at Nazaré. The German might be from windsurfing stock, but with those awards behind his name already he is far from an outsider chance for this award.
Hugo Vau at Nazaré
This quiet and unassuming fisherman from Lisbon likes nothing better than when it gets 30 feet and grinding. That's when he finds his happy place. He also finds that place at Nazaré the Mother Of All Bombs when it comes to waves. Being a fisherman by trade, Vau does have more insight and more oceanic knowledge than many other surfers, and also knows things about the ocean that would definitely make him a bit more confident than others. This set wave is huge, windy, bumpy and gnarly, and Vau is just thriving on the conditions. That’s enough to show that the dude is gnarly
