Would-Be Rivals Take Top Honors at The Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards

By Chris Mauro

Rivalries are nothing new in surfing. The pursuit of the perfect wave is, after all, a hot war being fought over a precious natural resource. It takes a perfect storm and a broad swath of ocean to give life to these beasts. That's why average big-wave surf break is ridden only a handful of times each year. Traditionally, when legendary swells arrive the keepers of local surfing lore crawl out of their holes to take note of who did what. Those who charge with reckless abandon are lifted onto pedestals, declared clinically insane or both if they put on a really good show.

Each corner of the world produces its own big-wave idols, yet until the advent of the Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards a decade ago these distant cousins rarely, if ever, met. Today, the affair brings this community of like-minded freaks together. For one night each year, regional stars and global rivals now gather under one roof to celebrate the year's biggest and most terrifying accomplishments in big-wave surfing. It makes for an interesting evening since this community is famously comprised of alpha males with elephant size egos who enjoy nothing more than talking smack about their counterparts.


Greg Long and Grant "Twiggy" Baker, two of the most dominant players in the big-wave game these days, don't fit that mold. Both surfers have charming' "even disarming personalities. They also maintain a healthy respect for each other. So it's more than a little strange that both were big winners at this year's XXL proceedings last Friday night in Anaheim. Long, 26, of San Clemente, California, took "Ride of the Year" honors worth $50,000, while Baker, 35, of Umhlanga, South Africa, nabbed the esteemed "Biggest Wave and best "Overall Performance" categories.

That they dominated this year's awards was hardly a surprise though. Over the past couple of years they've each been on a tear in the big stuff. Both have won the prestigious Maverick's surf contest in Half Moon Bay, California, as well as the Red Bull Big Wave Africa competition held at a shark infested break called Dungeons, just outside of Cape Town. What' s interesting about their individual achievements is that they're undoubtedly a result of their partnership as a tow-in team when things get truly oversized. This duo has rapidly become one of the most prolific teams in big wave history.

In years past the would-be rivals would likely be at each other's throats, if they were communicating at all. Instead, the bond between them is emblematic of a huge shift in the nature of this once very selfish, lone wolf pursuit. Surfers used to build their big-wave reputations alone, forming relationships with the nearest big wave break and doing their best to own it whenever the waves turned on. Yet that paradigm was rocked in the mid 90s with the advent of tow-in surfing.

When personal Wave Runners were abruptly thrown into the big-wave arena, breaks previously thought impossible to ride were suddenly ripe for the plucking. Now when swells get truly massive surfers grab hold of ropes attached to personal water craft and get whipped into the very danger zone that they can't breach under paddle power alone. Old barriers of big wave riding are consistently being shattered as a result. Whereas 25 to 30-foot waves were once considered the survivable ceiling, suddenly surfers are riding waves as big as 50, 60 and even 70 feet; they're also riding more compact, ferocious slabs that are thicker and more ugly than anything seen before. The Billabong XXL Awards Show was born as a result of all this, and in part, to see if this new era could lead to the first ever100-foot wave attempt.

To date, the record for the world's biggest ride is held by Mike Parsons, who, at age 43, rode a 70-foot wave at Cortes Bank in January of 2008. This fickle big-wave spot was once only known as the most treacherous nautical hazard off the Southern California coast, sitting 100 miles out in the middle of the ocean. Cortes Bank, it is widely believed, is the place most likely to produce the hallowed 100-foot wave due to its exposure and scalability. Yet it will likely take an El Nino winter storm to make it happen. The last El Nino winter was in 1998, three years before any serious attempts at Cortes were underway. Parsons won the first XXL Award there in 2001, and repeated last year, breaking his old record. Both times he was towed-in by Brad Gerlach, a bitter rival from his earlier days as a pro surfer, who has since become his best friend.

The relationship between Long and Baker started off as a competitive one, too. "We met at a big wave contest down in Africa," says Long. ' Most of the other guys were getting lazy during the three-week waiting period, but Grant was up before dawn every day checking the conditions; we both were. After bumping into each other a few times super early in the morning we started looking for waves together' and we haven't stopped since.'

Despite the fact that these two live on opposite sides of the world, the pairing has been remarkably successful when it comes to chasing down the big swells. "We live off of the weather models," says Baker. "I'm always watching storms in the Southern Hemisphere, while Greg has the whole Northern half of the globe covered. When we see something cooking on the maps we determine where we need to be do all it takes to get there." The past 12 months were relatively quiet in the Northern Hemisphere relative to previous years, which means they spent a lot of time in the Southern Hemisphere, which produced a good chunk of this year's most spectacular rides. Tasmania, Tahiti and Chile were a few of the prominent players, but Long and Baker both caught their winning rides in South Africa.

"Those guys deserve everything they're getting right now," says Parsons, who knows what it takes to be a tireless swell chaser with 15-years of big game hunting under his belt. "I don't see anyone else out there with the dedication level they have. If somebody is going to break the 100-foot mark the smart money is on those guys. Because when it's that big it's not a solo act. It's a team effort."