This news just deciphered by the surf sleuths at Zag, South African, Grant Twiggy Baker is the new Big Wave World Champion!
With waiting period effectively over for the final contest of the 2016/2017 season to run, it means that our man Grant Twiggy Baker is the new Big Wave World Tour Champion… for the second time. Please join us, all together now: Yeeeuw!
Twiggy was chased hard to the podium by Pedro Calado and his old mate Greg Long, with the Saffa securing the title by just over 3000 points, a little less than a 7th place finish… It was a tight one! Twiggy won the title after an epic first place finish in the heaving 20 foot barrels of Puerto Escondido, followed by a 3rd place finish at macking Peahi and a 7th in the maelstrom of the Nazare beachbreak, an event he swore was the sketchiest he’d ever surfed.
It is no coincidence that Twiggy now joins Greg Long as the only other surfer to have won the coveted title twice. The two surfers forged a professional partnership of sorts after the Red Bull Big Wave Africa, long before the Big Wave World Tour was conceived, with the intention of upping their performance in waves of consequence, staying fit, tracking swells, perfecting their competition acumen and simply riding the world’s biggest waves. It’s a foundation that has served them well, with Twiggy’s name now etched on that trophy twice!
“Well done, legend!” Said the Zag, chatting to the champ on Whatsapp.
“Ha ha. I’m too young to be a legend!” He shot back. Them’s fighting words. Watch this space for the full interview.
* ALL IMAGES © WSL
Soo proud of you my boy love Aunty