Update: Organisers have called off the Eddie due to the local poor winds on Wednesday
With the North Pacific roaring to life as La Niña starts to loosen its grip, we've got two significant storms lining up for the Hawaiian Islands this week.
The first is strong and large enough for the event organisers of the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational to call it on off for this Wednesday Hawaiian time (Thursday Australian time). The last time the Eddie was run was in 2016 with John John Florence taking out the event. Looking at a recent warm up session in maxing Waimea Bay, he'll be hard to beat.
The storm that's caught the event organisers attention is another 'bombing' low that's developed to the north-west of the islands. This is the second within a week firing up in the North Pacific, with the first delivering one of the biggest swells in decades to the Californian coast.
This current low has dropped well over the threshold of 24hPa within a 24hr period to classify it as a 'bombing' system, with explosive cyclogenisis resulting in the formation of a broad swathe of storm-force (50-60kt) winds aimed towards the Hawaiian Islands.
The storm-force fetch will be maintained for over 24hrs resulting in an extra-large, long-period NW groundswell that will arrive in the early hours of Wednesday morning (Hawaiian time) and build rapidly with step-ladder sets due to reach 25ft+ through the day.
The only issue are the local conditions, with strong N/NE tending NE due to create choppy, tricky take-offs (great for viewers – scary for competitors), though with the size and consistency of the swell there should be plenty of cleaner ones to pick off after the first wave of the set.
The low will continue east, generating an extra-large groundswell for northern California later in the week along with a period of light local winds. Keep an eye out for that footage of that swell from the weekend.
Regardless keep Thursday morning free to witness all the carnage from the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational.
Comments
The last one was an epic day, not much was accomplished at work.
The last two were the most exciting days I’ve had at work. :-)
"there should be plenty of cleaner ones to pick off after the first wave of the set"
Same theory I use at 2-3ft Cabarita.
thanks mate. what time?
5am Thursday morning in Australia will be 8am Wednesday morning in Hawaii.
"5am in Australia"....Gees, you jingoistic East Coasters...
Ha, sorry, AEDST.
I appreciate the correction Craig, but too late, borders go up and anyone one with an East Coast accent ejected as soon as Autumn arrives.
Ha ha rubicon
But wats new
WA locked their borders all last year ha ha
Yes, but we missed the crucial step of clearing the lineups before locking the gates.
Sorry, I meant "repatriating our beloved siblings from the East"
What else is there?
I have the day off. Nice.
https://www.theeddieaikau.com/ only 2 Aussies in the mens I think , not sure about the women
Sounds psycho!
How's the synoptic chart on Wednesday night after the next low forms?!
2 lows, both as big as Australia covering the north pacific.
Tuberiding Waimea
Frothing. JJF recent form could be hard to beat, I can't imagine how hard he will charge in The Eddie
Yes, however I also think Twiggy will be VERY keen to get the Eddie win
Best news all year !!!!
Watch it Build
https://explore.org/livecams/hawaii/hawaii-waimea-bay-cam
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Great news that von Rupp is in! For any who miss the live stream there should be some quality and completely impartial coverage of the event on his socials
Woohoo!! This is epic. I'll do a day of work tomorrow to clear me up for Thursday. Cheers for the headsup SN. Looks like it's gonna be a memorable one going by the forecast.
Russ Bierke would've been good to see
Yeah, I wonder why no invite?
Who's the second Aussie? Jamie Mitchell and?
Ross pack cones
RCJ and Ben Wilkinson is an Aussie too , underground Hellman
Stoked to see Mike Ho on the list, flying the flag for the over-60's. Inspiring stuff. Hope he gets some bombs.
Albee Layer still not forgiven for brushing the last one. Also dissed pipe for non-invite. Would’ve been good to see what he can do with Waimea but seems he’s on the outer
Dropped by Dakine as well..
One of the most well rounded and exciting surfers around. Too honest and outspoken?
Not sure eh, a weird one.
He doesn't do the north shore I dont think.
any women invites?
15% female representation, 5.5 Hawaiians, 0.5 Brazilians and a French woman
Intriguing. So one competitor is half Hawaiian, half Brazilian? That has to be a certain blonde haired ripper?
Moller less correct in that assumption VJ
Ooohh Thursday day off work stencilled in. Could be epic..JJ performing will be amazing to watch.
You guys streaming it?
Geez ...30ft closeouts... Slater says too big atm...
Eddy the local lifeguard may have said ...not good enough?
that was jan 2016 : ]
what's the period forecast to be...anything over 18 secs is a problem
EC says 16 sec. GFS 17 sec.
I understand that Clyde Aikau was 66 when he competed in the last Eddie!
Inspirational.
It’s off apparently
What ya mean?
Yep, cancelled.
What a cock up, winds were always average as mentioned in the article.
Yep you called it, bizarre that the reason for canning it already existed when they called it on
Feel for those who've booked flights for the contest, they'd be wanting compensation.
Wow, there ya go, literally in the air when called off.
Hopefully nick von flog nuts gets an interview.. love his insight to his surfing..!!!! jjf Kelly worth watching for sure
Albee from a few yrs ago....And his latest insta post.....a little Dig at the Eddie ?
Mental, Guy absolutely charges. Why wouldn't you want a rider like that on your team. Can surfers no longer express themselves freely, poke fun at themselves or are the top dogs afraid of loosing control. Are they Just a product, a business model? Or have they got something we could be learning from regardless if we agree with it. Brand control is not surfing, but product placement, Tell it like it is. Go Jamie and go Albee layer and any one who pushes over the edge be it free surfing or competition. The Eddie is iconic and revered no matter what. Wether it runs this year or next.I hope they find some bombs regardless. They are on another level.
Albee's a good man.
It's almost like they panicked when that edit of JJF at Waimea was dropped.
That day looked Eddie sized to me.
He was taking off way behind the boil.
Read somewhere the footage from the edit is from last season.
Do they get too picky each year?
Big wave surfing has hairs on it.
All this to take a terrifying drop under the most brutal lip then race for the channel.
I'd be glued to it if they can run. Any chance on the follow up storm?
Meanwhile at Backdoor this morning.
How does he do that I don't know, most other Surfers would be eating lava rock. Can't let Rissa show him up I guess
just after 6am i saw that on Explore cam...wild!
Pretty sure it was that Wave
Ha!
Bugger! So a green light isn't really a green light then?
Will settle for watching the surfcam all day then
Baffled that the Backdoor Shootout isn't running. It's still absolutely pumping.
Probably waiting for the sand to move off the ree.g..
They can only run one contest per day in/ on Oahu.
Maybe they pulled the permit for the Eddie ?
They only run the shootout if they get prime conditions.
Step ladder sets? Ya'll laughed when I used this term back in 2016.
"I'll stick with my "step ladder" sets call for tomorrow.."- forecast notes- feb 2016.
Caused a big stir over the proceeding weeks - "wtf are step ladder sets?".
Well now its part of the swellnet vernacular.
#sheepdog4pm
You actually referenced the term earlier than that.. Dec 2014. A little over eight years ago!
https://www.swellnet.com/comment/366586#comment-366586
Can anyone find any earlier posts! Haha Udo?
I'm so glad this term exists. I'm going to borrow that one if it's ok
Always enjoyed your input into Forecasts Sheepy
Keep your eye on that bit of Minge way out East on Thursday etc
I notice Bruce Irons is not on the list, any insight as to why that may be?
He’s dropped off the scene big time hasnt he. Wonder if he is surfing anymore?
Big and booming, and winds are good. Has that morning-of-a-new-swell look, though.
All the big names are still giving it a crack, should be some good footage to come.
Looks like the NE wind just hit.
Where is Mark Visser? Still prepping for jumping out of planes?
Nightshift -Solo Nightsurfing
LIVE
Fun to watch, but makes you wonder why it didn't run the day of the recent JJF/Jack Robbo clip. That day was huge; today looks tame in comparison.
I think someone did some digging and that clip was from last season IB
Yep, I got that, but the Eddie hasn't run since 2016. Was covid still fcuking things up there last year?
True. I think it went on hiatus for a bit but could be wrong. Those jaws images blow Waimea out the window!
Peahi..
That was incredible.
Man this live feed is hard to watch. Slow 1 wave sets and half the size i expected.
Jeeezus Kempers Cave
#Buggs
A l b e e
Holy hell that’s insane
Amazing that these shots just get posted straight to insta for a quick view. Would have been the cover of any mag back in the ol' days, kids would stare at it for hours/days on end.
Yeah mental eh!
Wow! Epic ..
Unbelievable!
So clean, so big, and hollow.
the Eddie has always had some hype regarding forecasts, plenty of false alarms. also the competitors list is not typical list you see. Russ bierke may have to do a few more seasons yet.
.
Surflines 20ft plus is like 10plus Australian LoL
Hype of the century. At The Bay anyway. Jaws was BIG
Kai Lenny may toy with Jaws, but Billy K now has the two best barrels out there. Or?
How 'bout' a double barrel with your bro 12/1/23
Well done!
Btw, an honest tow board question (I've never towed, let alone in massive waves): It almost always looks like even the top guys are struggling to control their tiny tow boards. Why not go a little longer? You're going stupid fast, so surely a ~7'0 x 17" would feel better and smoother?
I really miss tow surfing footage.
I figure now days that they may have stopped too early.
Or were kooked out of the line up.
They did start with bigger boards at jaws back in the day..
Lopez slowly started bringing the dimensions down.
You have to remember they were all avid snowboarders crossing over technology.
Still feel there is room in the tow realm.
A quite resurgence needs to happen.
It was the right call not to run the Eddie today.
I watched a fair bit of Waimea and actually enjoyed it. Was slow, wasn't jaws, but, still looked big to me..lots of water moving, watching how they placed themselves when a set came, the different approaches to catching a wave and how all the different sized boards worked and how that corresponded to positioning on takeoff. Thoroughly enjoyable, well presented free entertainment.
Plenty of party waves yesterday, few made the close outs
Whens the next Eddie swell Craig ?
Not much coming unfortunately.
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Eddie is green lighted for Sunday apparently
https://www.staradvertiser.com/2023/01/19/sports/sports-breaking/the-ed…
The photo at the top of this article is a pretty all-time great photo. J. Florence taking the inside line. Red board looking back for an amazing view. Yellow board managing to get out of the way by not very much. Blue board has just made it over.
After a quick investigation, Mason Ho is the other surfer riding the wave.