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U.S.|Surfers Return for Rare Big Wave Contest in Hawaii
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/22/us/eddie-aikau-surf-contest.html
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The Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational is held only when conditions are just right. The 45 invited surfers had less than 48 hours to arrive on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, on Sunday.
Dec. 22, 2024, 5:03 p.m. ET
Barry Sweet has a front seat to the mass of humanity that descends on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, for the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational.
“If you watch from early morning until early afternoon, it’s like a pilgrimage,” he said of the crowds for the surf competition, better known as the Eddie.
Alongside his wife, Janelle, and her sister, Deann Sakuoka, he watches from the vantage point of Pupukea Grill, a food truck run by his family that is parked off the two-lane Kamehameha Highway, a 10-minute walk from Waimea Bay and one of the few restaurants within miles.
When the Eddie is called some 48 hours before the contest is set to begin, a prestigious list of invitees — 45 competitors and 25 alternates — begins scrambling. Surfers from Australia, Brazil, France, Italy, South Africa and Tahiti had a host of logistics to work out to make it to Waimea Bay in time on Sunday.
They are joined by tens of thousands of spectators who crowd a small strip of beach and the surrounding cliffs, many of them camping out as soon as the ubiquitous event is called. Kamehameha Highway, which hugs the bay, is clogged long before the sun comes up. It is the only road to and from the bay.
Like many big-wave competitions, the Eddie has a holding period that lasts for a few months, between mid-December and mid-March, meaning it could run at any point in that period if the conditions are right. But unlike most events, the Eddie rarely happens, giving rise to the slogan “the bay calls the day.”
