Big-wave champion ­Keala Kennelly is her own best critic.

Asked in a Dec. 1 phone interview how she felt after winning the Women’s Jaws Challenge at Peahi on Maui, Nov. 29, in monstrous waves with 30- to 50-foot faces, “I feel like I got run over by a bus,” said the Kauai native, who’d experienced several violent wipeouts and a scary hold-down after she’d run out of air for her inflatable vest during the competition’s two heats. “I won, but I’m having very mixed feelings about it,” she added.

That, she explained, was because she hadn’t completed any waves — few of the 10 contestants did, producing low scores across the board. “It doesn’t feel like I’m deserving,” Kennelly said, then conceded, “I’m a bit hard on myself.”

That relentless drive, however, not only powered her win at vertiginous, out-of-control Peahi, but made her the first woman to win the open-gender, Pure Scot Barrel of the Year Award in the World Surf League’s 2016 Big Wave Awards, and the first woman to be invited to compete in the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational at Waimea Bay. Maui’s Paige Alms, who won the previous two Women’s Jaws Challenges, was invited as an alternate.

MANY COMMENTATORS expressed surprise that, when the contest was called on, the women were sent out first. Calm conditions were predicted but the wind kicked up and the waves proved unmakeable; still, the women charged valiantly for their two heats. In the final, Bianca Valenti was badly rattled and disoriented by the same wave that held Kennelly under, and Justine Dupont suffered a dislocated shoulder. Maui’s Andrea Moller placed second after Kennelly. Next, the men went out and took a similar beating until the contest was postponed until next day, when Billy Kemper scored a narrow win over Kai Lenny in smaller, more rideable, but still titanic waves.

“I’m very proud of every girl who put on a jersey and went out, put it all on the line, just going for it — we showed we earned that equal pay,” Kennelly said. She was referring to this year’s major advancement in women’s sports: WSL announced that there would be parity of prize money for men and women in both the big-wave contests and championship tours. Big-wave women and the Committee for Equity in Women’s Surfing helped make it happen by demanding, with the support of the California Coastal Commission, that equal prize money be paid and a complete women’s contest be run alongside the men’s in the annual Mavericks big-wave event at Half Moon Bay, Calif. A women’s division is scheduled this winter for the first time.

Pay matters — a lot, said Kennelly, who lives in Waikiki, bartends three days a week and deejays to support herself but has still, she said, gone into debt to be able to travel and chase swells. “I try to imagine how much better my performance could have been (on Nov. 29) had I the capability to spend that work time in the water and the gym (instead),” she said. “I don’t get a lot of moments to train really hard.”

She is buoyed by winning equal prize money — $20,000 — to Kemper’s at Peahi.

ASKED HOW it felt paddling into Jaws that morning, she compared it to riding a mechanical bull. “It’s just really challenging when it’s that windy because you need a certain amount of momentum to make it down the wave. Once that wind gets under your board and your fins release, it gets so much harder to control.”

Her slight build — Kennelly stands 5 feet, 5 inches and weighs 115 pounds — makes it harder to hold the board down.

Did she think the waves were unmakeable and go for it anyway? “I was hoping I would make it every time,” she said.

She still sounded haunted, however, by the last set when she was caught inside with a broken leash and no air in her vest. “I was seeing stars, held underwater so long, I thought I was going to black out. I was thinking I might die.”

However, “I lived and we charged and I’m so stoked.”

Her big worry, Kennelly said, was that Mavericks or the Eddie would be called on before she was back in shape.

“In the Lineup” features Hawaii’s oceangoers and their regular hangouts, from the beach to the deep blue sea. Reach Mindy Pennybacker at mpennybacker@staradvertiser.com or call 529-4772.