The “Eddie”, one of Hawaii’s most beloved surfing competitions, occurred toward the end of 2024 for the second straight year, with Hawaii’s native, Landon McNamara, claiming victory.
Located in the famous Waimea Bay, along the North Shore of Oahu Hawaii, the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational is one of the biggest surfing events in the world. Some people even call it, “The Super Bowl of Surfing.” For a unique requirement, the competition can only be held when open-ocean swells consistently reach a height of 40 feet. If the waves do not meet these criteria, the event will not happen for that year. This past year, the event occurred on December 22, 2024, as waves exceeded the requirements to hold the competition.
The competition began in honor of the late Waimea Bay lifeguard, Eddie Aikau. Aikau was the first lifeguard on the entire North Shore of Oahu and surfed the large swells that the bay produced. During his time as a lifeguard in Hawaii, he had over 500 rescues, none ending in death. Aikau was, and still is, known as a legend within the surfing community and Hawaii. 40 years ago, Aikau died in a boating accident while attempting to save the rest of his crew on the Hokule’a voyage in 1978. In his honor, members of the surfing community held the first ever “Eddie Big Wave Invitational” in 1984. The 1984 winner of the “Eddie” was Denton Miyamuna. This event is very special for the people of Hawaii. Many individuals who ran the events were friends with Aikau or knew who he was. The event has a famous saying “ Eddie would go,” meaning that when waves were so large and seemed impossible to surf, Aikau would go and surf them, defying the odds that everyone had against him. That is why this event only occurs when the conditions are perfect, when Eddie would go.
Ever since the first “Eddie” in 1984, the competition has only been held 11 times due to the wave height requirement. Many big wave surfers have won the competition including Kelly Slater and John John Florence, both Olympic and World Surf League surfers. In 2023, the “Eddie” ran for the 10th time, and the winner, Luke Shepardson, like Aikau was a North Shore lifeguard working the day of the event. Shepardson surfed his heats during his breaks at work. The 2023 competition was also the first year female surfers were allowed to participate, something that spilled into the 2024 competition. Moana Jones Wong said she was honored to be a part of this amazing event for the first time in 2024. Along with this, Annie Starr Reichert said, “Competing in The Eddie was the honor of a lifetime.” For a lot of the women competing in the event, it was their first time riding a wave at Waimea Bay.
This year, the “Eddie” was held again for the second straight year. When deciding if the event could happen again, Kevin Wallis, the director of forecasting for the event stated “ My wish is for buoy obs/satellite passes in the 50’ range has been granted. This Storm’s a beast!” Waves and expectations were huge on December 22, with locals and visitors packing the streets and sleeping in their cars just to try and view the event.
McNamara, a singer-songwriter from Hawaii won this year’s event with a perfect wave scoring 50 points total. This wave was the only perfect wave of the day. In an Instagram post made by Mcnamara the day after the event, he stated, “So many waves ridden by other warriors…, I was just blessed enough to find the few that made the difference.” He then went on to say that preparation, support, dedication, and a solid game plan were what helped him achieve his win.
There is no telling when the next Eddie will be, however, in the meantime, many other huge surfing competitions are happening such as Pipeline, the Lexis Pipe Pro, and many more. For more information on surfing events coming up, the World Surf League website has them all listed.
