Strange old weekend it was. As a surf fan, I had my eye on Mavericks – the changing swell and the calls that were being made or going to be made by big wave Commissioner Mike Parsons. It was while I had my eye on the forecasts and the unfolding situation I was also picking up the pandemonium following the Ballistic Missile Threat in Hawaii that was dominating everyone’s feeds. Not a good way to wake up on the North Shore. Imagine the surfers and their families.
Where were the Hawaiian big wave surfers? Had they flown over to Mavs just in case of a green light? Who were these surfers?
Have you had a good look at the WSL Big Wave Tour rankings of late? They’re pretty much being owned by the Hawaiians at the moment. Over on the men’s side they have the top four places and a few minor places, and over on the women’s tour they have top 2.
Let’s have a quick look at the four surfers dominating the big wave space thus far this year:
Kai Lenny won the Puerto Escondido Challenge in fine form in July last year, beating Jamie Mitchel, Tom Lowe and Billy Kemper into the minor placings in the final. Hi win netted hum 10,000 for first, which was followed up by a fourth place finish at the Pe’ahi Challenge for which he banked 9,042 points.
Billy Kemper, who has two Pe’ahi Challenge victories behind him, is in second place on the ratings, and he is not far behind Kai at all, with a combined total points tally of 18,807 next to Lenny’s 19,042. Nothing in it, and Kemper is one of the hardest training and most dedicated big wave surfers out there. If he gets a couple of opportunities at big Mavericks, he’s not going to blow them.
Ian Walsh is a surprise in third place. He did win the Pe’ahi Challenge, and he did get the biggest and most ridiculous barrel of all time ever in competition, but it is still quite surprising to see him in third, seen as he has only surfed one event. 15,625. With the waves in excess of 45-foot faces for the Pe’ahi Challenge, the rule kicked in that the final scores would be 156,25% of normal value, hence the final result for Walsh was 15,625 points. It was therefore the right contest to win. *
In fourth place is former world champion Makuakai Rothman, with a third place at Pe’ahi netting him 10,850 points to help along the 3,070 he banked at the first event for his 7th place in Mexico.
For now it seems that Mavericks is gone cool on us, but there are exciting times ahead for when it does run. With the top four men from Hawaii and then Paige Alms and Keala Kennelly one and two on the women’s side, it does seem highly probable that we are going to see another world champ, or two, coming from Hawaii. Provided no missiles.
