Mark Healy, Grant TWIG Baker and Billy Kemper take home the top scoring waves last night in Pe’ahi. Just look at the line Twiggy runs on the second wave, UNBELIEVABLE!!
Yesterday a rising, long-period swell was throbbing out in the deep, pushing some long, powerful lines across the horizon as competitors tried to ‘keep calm’. A large Pacific storm combined with the low tide created one of the most challenging days of competition for the Big Wave Tour riders in the event’s four-year history.
The women took to the water first, as the Pacific began to grab on to the field, and the blasting easterlies made each drop kak difficult my bru! The day’s swell continued to build as the men placed themselves in the lurching ocean as line after line came barreling in, hammering the underwater ridgeline at Pe’ahi. Forty-foot faces began to transform into 50-foot plus.
Billy Kemper was the first to paddle himself into a MONSTER closeout barrel:
“I knew when I got into the wave that it was going to be a big barrel so I set my line and I kind of got two good pumps and it kind of inhaled – these big boards are hard to adjust in barrels like that, not like Sunset. You’re locked in, and the inhale of the wave-it just evaporated me. It’s very violent,” said Kemper.
Next came Grant “Twiggy” Baker, dropping into a flippen bomb. What came next was a violent explosion which saw the newly dubbed Nazareé Challenge Champ get SPAT out and left scrambling, separated from his board.
FULL HIGHLIGHTS BELOW
