The Eddie Goes On Green Alert
Update: Contest Director Liam Macnamara has put the Eddie Aikau Invitational on green alert, meaning it'll definitely run. Start time still to be announced - it'll depend on what time the incoming swell hits - but sometime on the morning of Sunday 22/12. Monday Australian time.
The photos from the opening ceremony are still doing the social media rounds, meanwhile, the organisers of the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational are preparing for an early party.
The North Shore has been indulged by a solid run of north-west energy with one spike, due to hit this Sunday 22nd December - Monday Australian time - expected to cross the Eddie threshhold of 20'. With it, the organisers have issued a yellow alert
Current models have the swell undersized at first light but ramping quickly northwards for a midday/afternoon peak. Winds at this stage appear to be light nor'east.
The waiting period for The Eddie opened last Friday, December 13, 2024 and runs through to March 13, 2025.
Luke Shepardson winning the 2023 edition of the Eddie (Matheus Pacheco)
The last Eddie winner was local North Shore lifeguard Luke Shepardson, who won it in 2023. Sheppardson was just the tenth winner in the forty years since the Eddie was first held.
Comments
Reckon they’ll run it Stu forecast looks pretty good ?
A cursory look at the forecast looks good, though they'd really wanna hope it arrives on time as any later they'll be in trouble getting it done for the day.
Craig's been paying more attention to recent patterns in the N Pac so maybe he'll weigh in here.
Yep I reckon they'll pull the trigger and run if they're going on yellow, as there isn't likely to be a downgrade from here. If it weakens a touch it will put the arrival back a bit further in time and more so mid-late morning.
Right now there should be strong sets arriving shortly after dawn, though strongest from mid-morning and peaking into the afternoon.
The main issue for me is how north the swell will be and the longer-period nature of it which isn't ideal.
In saying this, surrounding the core hurricane-force winds is quite a significant fetch of strong to gale-force winds and this will help pad out any long-period sets that may get steered away.
I'd expect bay closeouts.
You bloody beauty. Saw the forecast 3 days ago and have been waiting a call. Let’s hope the stars align.
A warm up session
https://www.windy.com/-Waves-waves?waves,21.626,-158.048,14,m:ehfaLI
were 21 hrs ahead of Hawaiian time .... they have 3hrs of sun before the east coast of Oz
Saw big wave Flick in Coles yesterday
A long way from Da Bay
Should be a slam dunk for size, but local wind and arrival time need to both co-operate. Watching it closer now and those two factors are gonna be the things on the organisers' minds.
Pretentious? Maybe he meant prestigious
Go bog or go home
Classic!
Whoops! Glad you figured that out. I was confused.
Where can we watch it?
Rip Curl's YouTube channel. We'll see if we can embed it on Swellnet.
Thanks Stu
Gunna be interesting to see if it goes.
Doesn't look like a classic Eddie swell- fetch looks better positioned for NorCal, making direction and period a bit weird for Waimea.
Want it more more W, shorter period, so closer range storm.
And timing of peak could be a bit iffy as well.
We'll see.
Yep, agree with all of that, I was surprised they went yellow but with no change to the incoming storm, they'll probably go green if they were happy with the original outlook.
I'm used to hoping for longer periods every time I go surfing.
What is the period for this swell and why would a shorter period be better?
The longer period energy focusses the swell more onto the outer reefs and takes away the size from Waimea.
Storm motion not lining up nicely with direction of fetch, but holy smokes you wouldn't want to be steaming west into its path.
The scope of the storm should override this somewhat, just not ideal for Waimea. The Hawaiian Islands are going to be crazy Sunday afternoon, can't wait to see what comes out of Peahi. Have to be 80ft.
Then as you mention.. Mavericks...
Up the Playback to x2
Think the first wave is Aaron Gold's XXL winner?
If so, olde footage.
Hmm i wasnt Sure ..
https://www.youtube.com/live/E2DXSXApjHU?si=uhd0D9-PMgxxaSCH
Even when Liam's being nice he still looks like he's gonna drop in then punch your fins out.
I had the displeasure of sharing a G-Land trip with him and his family one year...what a fuckwit. Before he even entered the line up half the camp wanted to punch him in the face...the way he spoke to the locals and staff was disgraceful.
Got in the water and it was even worse...paddling around like he was at home in Hawaii...ironically took a Brazilian jujitsu monster to pull him into line.
goosebumps in advance
Unconvincing green..
Is Shepardson rostered on again?
yep, along with slater, long, florence, irons and RCJ, wins spanning 23 years.
https://www.theeddieaikau.com/#Invitational
He had lifeguard shifts last time. Was sitting in the tower watching kooks get hammered in the shorebreak and every swell that came through.
I'm wondering if he'll change his winning approach? Soaking up the atmosphere on the beach with RCJ looks like fun too but not the single minded preparation from previous
ah, rostered on the beach, I get you.
That low is zipping along pretty fast West to East. Hard to imagine them getting a whole day out of it. Looks like massive long period sets filling in through the day from its core but not alot in between. Interesting call to go green. Will be interesting to see how it plays out. I'm still skeptical they'll run.
Actually scratch that. I was looking at the map from somewhere near Mars. On second and a closer glance, there's plenty going on to the SW of the low to keep that swell pulsing in. Hope so!
Well this came as a slight surprise, guess there's some big wave surfers who will be having Christmas in Hawaii.
Best of luck to all the competitors.
At this point I really enjoy big wave surfing from the couch .
Is it on? I can’t find it on YouTube.
Sunday local. So, tomorrow.
Cheers Ben
Ahhhhh
Love watching this comp, always entertaining. Feel like they should ban the floaty vests though, seems to take the danger away if they can just bob around like corks after a 5 second hold down.
I don't see how the comp would be improved by people drowning.
Jeez I don't want anybody to die, just a bit less floaty.
Kai Lenny & others talking this swell up , possibly bigger than last year .
Sentimentally hoping for a RCJ win to bookend his career with a second Eddie.
Probably N Florence's to lose though with the roll that he's on.
Russ Bierke for me.
Great call. That was almost my first choice Goofy.
He’s got the skills to actually surf it across the face a bit more I reckon. Like JJF.
And pull in if a hollow one pops up.
In saying that I reckon Mark Healey would be a very deserving winner
Would love to see Healey or Russel B win it. Or Matt Bromley as the underdog.
Agreed @goofy and @IB. Healey was unlucky last time not to win it (although Shepardson was ultimately the most deserving) and he was my pick last event to win it.
Keep in mind, this time tomorrow, there's also a possibility we might be celebrating Laura Enever as the 2024 Eddie champion. Wouldn't that be something else. You know she's gonna go for it.
Ya never know!!
The Bay calls the day and the champion.
Apparently with the storm, the biggest wave height readings in 25 years of forecasting from that part of the pacific, its mainly aimed for West Coast of America, but the proximity of the fetch, the sideband energy should still be really huge. If anything like the last Eddie, well wow!!. Frothing to watch it, and the Westcoast of America a day or 2 later should be a really special Xmas for the chargers over there.
Wait your Fucken Turn Tow Boys
Fucken oath!!
noodle armed choirboys
Epic!
Still looking like rip curl YouTube channel will broadcast the comp?? Also anyone got a rough idea or wanna take a guess about what time they'll kick off tomorrow morning..5-6am ACST???
Their sunrise is at 7am local time, which is 4am in nsw/vic/tas, 3am in qld, 3:30 in sa, 1am in wa.. I think..
And apparently there's another site called roguetv that's broadcasting it, but i can't actually find their homepage.
From what I can read, all going well, the telecast will start at 7.55am Sunday Hawaiian time for an 8 a.m. event start,
So 4:55 am in nsw/vic/tas, 3:55 in qld, 4.25 in sa, 1:55 in wa.
1.55!!!???
Geeeez THANKS Wally!! haha
Nah seriously, cheers. Gonna be an early night for me!
A live feed of today (Aus Sunday):
Watching a bit of that , looks like it might be one place in Hawaii you can drop in and not get your head punched in ??
JJF threading a medium sized barrel in the warm up...
Swell has just hit the 51101 buoy north-west of the islands..
Travel time from there to Hawaii at 21s = 8 hours. So should be there around 9am.
Whoa! 21 seconds. That's serious!
what height was it reading?
Geez... Show us ya spike!
Now 20ft @ 17s
https://www.buoyreport.com/buoys/51101
Good morning all ! Looks like I'll be commenting here
9 am hawaii time start
9am Hawaii time start. That means another 45min of Kaipo babbling
haha. Not an ideal thing to wake up and listen to at 2am IB!
We have a live page: https://www.swellnet.com/form-guide/2024/the-eddie-aikau
Wassel looks like he's wearing a float vest.