Hawaii surfer Shane Dorian is nominated twice for the Billabong Ride of the Year Award for waves off Jaws on Maui and at Puerto Escondido, Mexico.

A $50,000 prize goes to the surfer who demonstrates the most advanced and committed level of big wave surfing.

The winner will be announced at the 205 World Surf League Big Wave Award ceremony on May 1.

“It was another spectacular year of big wave surfing, all around the globe,” said Bill Sharp, event director of the Big Wave Awards, in a news release. 

“Every year there are a few swell events where everything comes together and produces a batch of waves that end up contending for some of the top honors. It started with a big south swell in July that hit Peru for the Billabong Pico Alto Big Wave Tour contest and then moved up to Mexico where Puerto Escondido had an assortment of some of the heaviest tubes of the entire year,” he said. “As always, Jaws in Hawaii, Maverick’s in California and Nazare’ in Portugal were focal points and each had one or two days with epic conditions where multiple nominees were produced.”

The five biggest or best nominees in each category are chosen by a panel of judges. 

More than $120,000 in prize money will be awarded to the winning surfer and videographer in each category.  

Four of the categories were announced Thursday. The remaining three awards, the Wipeout of the Year, the Surfline Best Overall Performance and the Women’s Best Performance will be announced in early April.

Three of the five nominated Ride of the Year waves took place on July 5, 2014 at Puerto Escondido, Mexico including entries from 2014/2015 WSL Big Wave Tour runner up Gabriel Villaran from Portugal, 2013 Ride of the Year winner Dorian, and Florida’s Brad Domke on a finless skimboard. The remaining entrant is Dean Morrison for an impressive ride at Western Australia’s The Right.

The Paddle Award goes to the surfer who paddles into the biggest wave of the year. Big Wave Tour Champion Grant “Twiggy” Baker of South Africa is nominated twice in this category, for rides at Jaws and Pico Alto in Peru, while Australia’s Jamie Mitchell and Californian Nic Vaughan are nominated for performances at Maverick’s, California. Former Championship Tour competitor Damien Hobgood from Florida, rounds out the nominations for this category with his wave at Punta de Lobos, Chile.

The XXL Biggest Wave Award goes to the surfer who, by any means available, catches and successfully rides the biggest wave of the year. Entries include three waves from the same huge day at Nazar?, Portugal, including rides from former Biggest Wave Award winner and German tow surfer Sebastian Steudtner, 2001 Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau winner Ross Clarke-Jones of Australia and local Portuguese up-and-comer Hugo Vau. The remaining two entries are from Aussies Mick Corbett and Jarryd Foster at Cow Bombie off the coast of Western Australia.

The surfer who rides the single most spectacular barreling wave of the year wins the Tube Award, The Australian slab, The Right, generated three of the 2015 nominations with rides from Morrison (who is also nominated in the Ride of the Year category), Brad Norris and Chris Ross, all from Australia. At age 16, Tahiti’s Matachi Drollet also made the cut after towing into a wave at Teahupo’o and is joined by Mick Corbett for his blue tube at Cow Bombie.

Photographs and video of all the nominated rides can be viewed at WorldSurfLeague.com/BigWave.