To add to his Big Wave World Tour crown, Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker was announced as the Surfline Overall Performance winner at the annual Billabong XXL Awards. The ceremony took place last night (Friday, 2 May) at the Grove Theatre in Anaheim, California, where the world’s bravest surfers had gathered to celebrate the past season’s most impressive big wave achievements.
Twiggy and his fiance, Kate Lovemore, make time for a photo on the red carpet at the Grove Theatre.
During the glitzy ceremony, Grant ’Twiggy’ Baker was officially crowned BWWT champ, but also took the stage once again later in the evening when he was announced by legendary big wave surfer, Greg Noll, as the Overall Performance winner for his crazy exploits over the past 12 months. During his acceptance speech, Twiggy urged ‘Da Bull’ to remain onstage as he paid homage to all the big wave pioneers that have pushed the limits over the years – including Cape Town legends Mickey Duffus and Pierre De Villiers.
Twiggy and Jamie Mitchell share a beast at Belharra during Hercules.
This season’s highlights for the Saffa charger not only included two big wave world tour event wins, but also some hard-charging at Belharra in France during the massive storm system dubbed ‘Hercules’, plus some mental paddle sessions back home at Dungeons and Sunset Reef. During a crazy session at Jaws in January, Twiggy also rode some monster waves and the evidence of that can be seen on the cover of the latest issue of Zag.
The world champ was up against some tough opposition in the Overall Performance category, namely Shane Dorian, Greg Long, Shawn Dollar and Jamie Mitchell, but it’s hard to argue against a BWWT title that featured all those athletes in the mix.
Here is the teaser clip showing all the nominees for the Surfline Performance Award.
The 2014/15 Big Wave World Tour season has already started, with the waiting periods for not only the Dungeons event that will be taking place on our stoep sometime between 15 April and 31 August 2014, but also the two other Southern hemisphere events at Pico Alto in Peru, and Punta de Lobos in Chile.
The Billabong XXL Awards also featured a number of other categories, which were won by the following hard-charging surfers:
Ride of the Year: Greg Long (Puerto Escondido, Mexico)
Biggest Wave: Galtier Garnax (Belharra, France)
Best Overall Performance: Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker
Paddle Award: Mark Healey (Jaws, Hawaii)
Biggest Wipeout: Koa Rothman (Teahupo’o, Tahiti)
Women’s Overall Performance: Keala Kennely
Best Tube: Koa Rothman (Teahupo’o, Tahiti)
Check out www.billabongxxl.com for all the nominees, or go to the Billabong XXL Facebook page for more photos and highlights from last night’s ceremony.
Nice one, Twig. A well-deserved victory.