![]() “Everybody had to keep rushing out because the water kept coming up and the furthest it got was to our blanket,” Manning said. After saving their spot, they waited in the pitch black for two hours before the sun rose.Īs large sets came into the bay, the water would climb up the sand to where people were sitting. One of her two friends laid out a blanket, reserving the spot where they were now watching the contest. She said people were running to claim spots. “All of a sudden, they yelled ‘it’s open,” Manning said. She parked at a friend’s house who lives in the area and the friend drove her to Waimea Bay at 4 a.m., where she lined up at the locked gate. She said at the time the traffic was “not too bad,” although there were many cars parked along the side of the road, with people sleeping in them. and almost immediately started the drive to Waimea Bay. In order to get her prime viewing spot, she said she had set her alarm for 1:30 am. Sara Manning, who lives near Diamond Head, was situated on a towel with two friends just a few rows behind the caution tape that stopped people from sitting too close to the roaring ocean, giving her a great view of the surfers descending the massive curvatures of the waves. Other people started their journey from Honolulu to Waimea Bay first thing in the morning, hoping to avoid the bumper-to-bumper traffic that later lined the highway. Miura said she hoped they would remember camping overnight and seeing the big wave surf contest as a family tradition.Ī man sells papale along Kamehameha Highway to people on the way to see the Eddie. She said it was her eldest daughter’s second time at the Eddie, having gone in 2016, and it was her younger daughter's first experience. Miura said she went to the Eddie in 20, adding that it was important for her to share the experience of seeing the big wave surf contest with her daughters. So that was pretty neat to see,” said Miura. The waves were pretty intense over there this morning. However, her husband and one of their daughters had climbed a nearby tree in order to get a better view. Also, they had already had to reposition themselves once because they were near a sewer hole city workers opened in order to pump sewage from the park’s restrooms, which had nonstop long lines for both the men and women’s facilities. The spot her family set up in was too far back to see the contestants surfing. Unfortunately for her, viewers had already filled the beach, reserving spots to watch the contest with beach towels and folding chairs. ![]() She and her family woke up at 5 a.m., started walking to the bay at 6 a.m. Starting at midnight, she said she could hear people walking by their car, making the trek to Waimea Bay, and she just tried her best to sleep through it. “The girls slept in the back and my husband, and I slept in the front,” said Miura. Nicole Miura, who lives in Mililani, parked at Shark’s Cove - about half a mile from Waimea Bay - and slept overnight in her Honda Pilot with her husband and two kids. In order to view the surf contest, many people in the enormous crowd had camped overnight. Waimea Bay on Sunday as people watch the Eddie big wave surf contest. Six female surfers were part of the lineup. Only 40 big wave surfers were invited to join this year’s competition.Īlong with being special because the event is so rarely held - this was only the 10th time the Eddie had been called on since starting in 1984 - it was a monumental moment for equal opportunities in surfing, as it was the first contest where women were invited. Spectators covered every inch of sand, spilling out onto the road, climbing into the cliffs behind the bay and setting up hammocks in trees to get a look at some of the best surfers in the world charging the massive 25- to 30-foot waves. The winter swell started crashing against the North Shore’s coastline in the middle of the night, and as the day went on, the waves continued to grow larger. Luke Shepardson, a Honolulu Ocean Safety lifeguard, won The Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational, an event named for a legendary local lifeguard, at Waimea Bay. 14, 2022, through March 23, 2023, for the contest to be a “go” this year. Wave heights had to be at least 20 feet on the Hawaiian scale, which measures waves from the back, between Dec. It was the first Eddie held since 2016, as organizers canceled the event during the 2020-2021 season due to COVID-19 and because the conditions must be perfect for the big wave surf contest to be called on. ![]() Along the way, budding entrepreneurs were selling cold drinks, musubi and papale (crownless woven hats). on Sunday morning, tens of thousands of people were making the pilgrimage - by walking, biking and driving - on Kamehameha Highway to head to the iconic event at Waimea Bay. WAIMEA BAY, Hawaii - Before the Eddie Aikau Invitational started at 8 a.m.
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