It was a 23-year battle, but on May 7 the Surfrider Foundation announced that plans to extend the breakwater at Ma'alaea Harbor on Maui have been permanently put to rest. Several environmental groups expressed concern that the project would cause damage to the coral reef in the area, and consequently diminish the quality of the nearby wave, Freight Trains. For now, it appears the fickle right-hander will continue churning out perfect waves as the Army Corps of Engineers and Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources agreed to discontinue plans for the extension of the breakwater.
Jim Moriarty, CEO of the Surfrider Foundation, commented on the magnitude of the victory in the company's press release, stating, "This win is up there alongside our victory at Trestles in terms of importance. Protecting our world's surfing resources is at the core of what we do."
Consider two representations of two very big waves, below. The first is a photograph of Mike Parsons at Cortes Bank. The second is a video of Garrett McNamara near Nazare, Portugal. Now take out some measuring tape and make the distance of one foot between your hands. That's the amount, according to the Billabong XXL committee, that McNamara's wave is bigger than Parsons's wave.
One foot is also what makes McNamara's 78-foot wave the new world record and Parsons's 77-foot wave the old one, as it was tentatively announced a Guinness World Record.
So how does this committee of judges determine that the filmic representation of one wave is a single foot bigger than the photographic representation of another wave?
You'd think that it was a very scientific process that involved charts and graphs and graphs of charts. You'd think that the committee might send someone to the surf-spots to try to assess exactly how many feet below sea level part of each wave breaks. You'd think that this person would bring the photograph and the video with them to determine, from the exact site where each wave was documented, what was overlooked on film. Basically, you'd think that some on-site research and head-scratching would occur.
According to Chris Dixon, who has served on the XXL panel in the past, the judging process is, as it turns out, a surprisingly crude estimation. In an article for Surfer magazine, Dixon recounts his own experience as a judge, writing, "...the process is fraught with peril." Dixon also points out the ambiguity of important questions including, "Where's the trough? How tall is the surfer to the inch? What about different camera angles?" A variety of arguments could be made for why a judging panel feels the need to assert that one wave is bigger than another, when, by their current process, that's clearly indeterminable.
It could be said that it's part of a larger cultural trend to have everything quantified. If you tuned in to the Nike Lowers Pro, that trend may have been apparent to you as everything from the rides scored 1-to-10, to value of the trophy, to the number of followers held by each surfer on Twitter was measured and broadcast.
For a long time big-wave surfing was impervious to this compulsion with measuring-up. Waves were just big or really big and that was enough. Buzzy Trent is often quoted for saying, "Big waves aren't measured in feet, but in increments of fear." The recent announcement suggests that perhaps that's no longer the case.
After months of debate it's official: Garrett McNamara has ridden a larger wave than any other surfer. The announcement was made during a competition awards ceremony Friday night that a wave McNamara conquered last November off Nazare, Portugal, measured 78 feet from trough to crest. That's one foot bigger than a wave ridden by Mike Parsons at Cortes Bank off Southern California in 2008. Guinness World Records approved the wave-height determination, which was made based on expert examination of available footage, Tuesday morning.
The XXL competition panel also determined the height of the wave Parsons rode, which was approved by Guinness.
Said McNamara of eclipsing the record: "It's amazing we get to do what we do, I am so grateful. The world record doesn't mean as much to me, this is for the town of Nazare and Portugal and for all my family and friends there. To be able to give them something to be proud of and inspire them...
"I didn't want to get caught up in it all, but I have to tell you the truth, when they announced my name I got a bigger rush than probably on all the waves I rode this year."
Though McNamara was honored for riding the largest wave, Nathan Fletcher earned the prestigious Ride of the Year award. His incredible ride, snagged in Tahiti last August, was immediately hailed as a contender. Fletcher gives Surfer magazine a blow-by-blow account of this incredible ride in the video posted below:
Nathan Fletcher earned the prestigious Ride of the Year honor at the Billabong XXL Big Wave Awards in Anaheim, California this weekend. His incredible ride, which he snagged in Tahiti last August, was immediately hailed as a contender for the year-long contest for big-wave surfers. Several witnesses called it the heaviest wave ever ridden, including 11-time-world champion Kelly Slater, who told Fletcher that morning that somebody was going to catch the wave of their life that day. Nathan had no idea that it would be him. He gave SURFER Magazine his blow-by-blow account of this incredible ride.
The Billabong XXL Awards is one event where it's probably best for all parties involved to avoid making each year bigger than the last. But the nature of the contest is to continue outdoing past records. And the 2012 XXL Awards, held at The Grove theater in Anaheim this Friday, delivered on that expectation in more ways than one.
Nathan Fletcher took top honors for his heroics during last year's infamous "Code Red Swell" at Teahupoo. For his one death-defying session, he was awarded the Monster Tube, Best Men's Performance, and Ride of the Year.
By the end of the night, Fletcher had taken home $60,000 for the three awards, which is still far less than you'd have to pay most surfers-- even professionals-- to risk life and limb at Teahupoo. When asked what was going through his mind during the Ride of the Year wave, he recounted thinking, "I can't survive if I don't make it to the shoulder. Then I realized I wasn't making it...To myself I was just like, 'Okay, it's been great. Life's great. This is it'... I couldn't believe I was still alive."
With Occy as host for the evening, there was no shortage of entertaining moments to provide some comedic relief between clips of the year's heaviest big-waves. Greg Noll's appearance onstage with two Playboy Playmates, where he broke from the script, was one of the many highlights (you'll have to watch that one for yourself at 1 hr. 45 min. below). Yet no performance-- at the show or on film-- overshadowed that of Nathan Fletcher at Teahupoo. Complete Results: Men's Performance Champion: Nathan Fletcher Girl's Performance Champion: Maya Gabeira Ride of the Year Champion: Nathan Fletcher at Teahupoo, Tahiti Biggest Wave Champion: Garrett McNamara at Praia do Norte, Portugal Monster Paddle Champion: Dave Wassel at Jaws, Maui Monster Tube Champion: Nathan Fletcher at Teahupoo, Tahiti Wipeout of the Year: Garrett McNamara at North Shore, Oahu
