It might be the spring doldrums here but the northern hemisphere is starting to rumble as the WSL Big Wave series enters its waiting period this week with events scheduled at Nazaré, Portugal, and Jaws on Maui on the biggest swell on offer before the end of March.
To get us in the mood for the carnage and mayhem to come, the season kicked off last weekend with the WSL/Red Bull Big Wave Awards night in Los Angeles and remote from all over the world. I have to admit I can’t watch the big wave events live – too much like watching paint dry as the surfers wait patiently for the monster set – but I love the highlights. And the Red Bull finalists represent the highlights of the year’s highlights!
We’ve all got our own stories about that day that turned out to be quite a bit bigger than we thought as we watched from the cliff, and the little tummy wobbles as we paddled out in the channel and got a closer look. I know I do because it was a day I had a heart attack!
But the reality is that only a tiny handful of surfers ever truly ride massive waves of ultimate consequence. Forty-five years ago this month I remember watching Australia’s Bruce Raymond take the drop down a 20-foot face at Waimea Bay and purposely wipe-out for the cameras shooting the movie Big Wednesday. Okay, he made $200 and survived, but we thought he was nuts.
Today Bruce’s brave dive into the pit wouldn’t even make the B-reel. Modern big wave surfers are breath-training machines who spend great chunks of their lives far from home waiting for the weather to turn horrible, and if you’ve ever spent a winter in Portugal you’ll know how horrible that can be. Their commitment is unbelievable, their bravery breathtaking.
And the women are right up there with the men. If you don’t believe me watch Justine Dupont’s quintuple-overhead barrel at Jaws on Red Bull’s YouTube channel. The Frenchwoman solidified her position as one of the best in big wave surfing with Ride of the Year, Biggest Tow, and Performer of the Year (for the second year in a row) honours in the Red Bulls. As the awards night script noted: “Dupont proved that she is as comfortable in maxing Jaws as she is at Nazaré.”
In the men’s division the incredible Kai Lenny from Maui again staked his claim as the greatest big wave rider of the modern era, with the 29-year-old claiming both Performer of the Year and Biggest Paddle-in. But the night belonged to the veteran Santa Cruz legend and former WSL Big Wave Tour commissioner Peter Mel.
The video of him paddling into his Ride of the Year winner at Mavericks, California, on 8 January this year, is a classic. Relaxed as the wave jacks up in size halfway down the face, Pete, now 51, just cruises off the bottom and squeaks under the fattest, heaviest lip you’ve ever seen.
Then he doesn’t know what to do. He looks dumbfounded as he floats into the channel and the boats filled with cameramen. This was a wave of a lifetime, a moment to be treasured for much longer than he was given. I’ve seen bigger waves arguably better ridden, but I haven’t seen many ridden with so much grace and passion.
To be honest, the first dozen or so times I watched that ride, it brought a tear to my eye. Respect, Mr Mel.
The Respect Award
And speaking of respect, I love the fact that the big award at the Noosa World Surfing Reserve Awards night coming up later this month – well, they’re all big but this one is special recognition of someone who embodies the true surfing spirit – is to be known, after consultation with the family, as the NWSR Respect Award in Memory of Bill Wallace.
The years seem to have flown by since Bill passed away, but I still have such vivid memories of him blessing the waters at one of our first Noosa surf festivals, alongside Hawaii’s Buffalo Keaulana and Californian big wave legend Greg Noll; of helping him get his heavy ski off the roof of the rusty old truck so he could paddle out over the bar long after he should have; of sharing a pink champagne with him in Bill’s Annexe at the front of the old cottage on Eumundi Road; of Shaun Cairns and I filming his stories of an incredible career.
In fact, my closeness to Bill in his fading years was the reason I decided to make a film about Bill and his generation of surfboard artisans, the men of wood and foam. It was fortunate Shaun and I recorded all their stories, because within a year of the film’s release, half of them were gone.
But Billy Wallace will always be part of Noosa’s surfing folklore, an artist, an athlete and a true gentleman. His respect award will honour a person – probably but not necessarily a surfer – “who has overall provided an outstanding contribution to the surfing lifestyle and culture within the Noosa Shire”. This might be the club junior who’s always there for the pack-up, or a veteran who has led by example and always put the aloha spirit ahead of his or her wave count.
If you have someone in mind for this and the other awards, visit noosaworldsurfingreserve.com.au to download a nomination form. The awards night and Summer Party fundraiser featuring The SandFlys is at the Noosa Surf Museum on Saturday 27 November. Tickets are selling fast, so go to noosaworldsurfingreserve.com.au and find the ticket tab.
