Following the big red blob when it appears on the surf forecast can be tricky – even harder if you’re trying to organize a surf contest with competitors who at a moment’s notice have to drop everything to chase the massive swells.
Sometimes, the best big swells show up outside of the contest waiting period, or at surf spots that aren’t on the list of events. Other times, the surf conditions fizzle — and so does the event.
The World Surf League announced Friday, Aug. 30, that it will be dissolving its Big Wave Tour, instead focusing on providing a hub and digital content that will follow big-wave riders as they seek out building-size waves around the world.
They will catalogue the journeys for the Big Wave Awards, held in Southern California, which will now serve as a qualifier for one big championship to be held at Pe’ahi, Hawaii, at the death-defying Jaws surf break.
Sign up for our Coast Lines newsletter, a weekly digest of news and features on how the residents of the SoCal coast are building ties to their changing environment. Subscribe here.
That means more prestige for the Big Wave Awards, which for years was held at the Grove in Anaheim before relocating last year to the BeachLife Festival in Redondo Beach.
“We’re creating a platform to celebrate big-wave surfing every time it happens,” said Pat O’Connell, senior vice president of tours and competition. “There’s big waves all around the world — we’re going to be mobile and go to them. It allows us to produce and provide so much more content for people to see.”
It’s also not as tough of a task as hosting multiple big-wave events that require heavy man-power, rigorous permitting processes, sponsorship support and a reliance on the big waves to actually show up.
Last year, three events were scheduled on the WSL Big Wave Tour, and only two took place. Despite the WSL purchasing rights to hold the Mavericks Challenge in Northern California, it never ran because the waves didn’t show up in the waiting-period window from Nov. 1 through the end of March.
“We’re hunkered down, waiting at one of three spots, waiting for that thing to happen,” O’Connell said. “I don’t think we’re doing big wave surfing justice in this way. The amount of resources, human time and energy, building these things up — they don’t always happen. So what we found is it just ends up falling flat. Another part that becomes hard is the sponsorship side. I think that’s the reality side of it — we need a partner that believes in big wave surfing.”
Typically, only 50% of big wave events actually run, O’Connell said.
Instead of waiting for swells to hit, the new online platform will allow the WSL to react faster, following surfers into the action in a new segment called “Strike Mission Series.” This will be the hub for breaking news, featuring user-generated content, footage from athletes and original pieces produced by the WSL.
“There’s things that are happening, but we didn’t have a place to tell people,” O’Connell said.
Submissions for the Big Wave Awards will come in from around the world, and riders in the “Performance of the Year” for the men and women’s categories will earn spots in the Jaws Big Wave World Championships, which also will include wildcards and competitors from last year’s event.
“This now, the Big Wave Awards, become a culmination of an entire year. We are keeping the prize money as we have in the past,” O’Connell said. “The idea is giving everybody a chance.”
It’s unknown if the awards will again be held in Redondo Beach during the BeachLife Festival.
There also will be an exhibition-style event at Nazaré, Portugal, where two Guinness World Records have been set for the biggest waves ever ridden. The Nazaré Tow Challenge exhibition will host invitees as they use personal watercrafts to tow into Nazaré’s biggest waves.
The holding period for the Jaws Big Wave World Championships at Pe’ahi and the Nazaré Tow Challenge will open Oct. 1 and run through March 31, 2020.
The WSL also will launch the Big Wave Development Fund, focused on the next generation of big wave surfers, with a focus on big wave safety and workshops.
Recent Comments