‘The Eddie’ Gets The Yellow Light For This Thursday, February 25th

Even if you aren’t a fan of surfing, ‘The Eddie’ is one of the contests which you should definitely pay attention to. The first ever Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau contest took place over 30 years ago, and was later branded only a big wave contest at Waimea Bay. In order for the prestigious event to be run, the waves must be in excess of 20 feet (and in good conditions during the waiting period window) which rarely ever happens. The event has only been run eight times in history, with seven of those being at Waimea Bay. Currently the folks responsible for putting on The Eddie have given a yellow light for the contest to run on Thursday morning, February 25th. Our fingers are crossed that we get to see the contest held, especially given that the surf forecast is expected to be clean and reach wave heights of over 40 feet.

Big wave surfers and fans got their hopes up three weeks back when The Eddie was set to be run, but was called off at the last minute. The folks from Quiksilver explained the reasoning with an Instagram post the following day:

Let’s set the story straight, the team here at Quiksilver want The Eddie to run more than anyone. However we also want it to be a fair event contested in conditions Eddie Aikau himself would have approved of. For this prestigious event to get the green light the event criteria must be met. The waves MUST be in 20 foot plus range for an entire contestable 8-hour period. That means from 8am to 4pm Waimea Bay must be bigger than 20 foot. The judging format for The Eddie is different to every other event in the world. The surfers waves in the first heat are judged against surfers waves in the last heat. Therefore if we ran the event yesterday, where the waves didn’t peak until the afternoon, the first three heats would have been surfed in smaller, lesser, unfair conditions. The event window remains open until February 29th and another storm is forming for next week. Although it’s a long way out, we have everything crossed that it will produce the waves we need to run this amazing spectacle of a surfing event. Any questions, hit us in the comments and we will do our best to make sure they are answered. #EddieWouldGo.

A photo posted by @quiksilver on Jan 29, 2016 at 4:46am PST

Eddie would go.

[The Eddie]