The 2021-2022 Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational at Waimea Bay will go on — that is, if waves and conditions meet the criteria during the holding period, which opens today and runs through Feb. 28, event organizer the Eddie Aikau Foundation announced on social media. In 2020 the holding period was canceled due to the coronavirus.
Also opening today is the holding period for Red Bull Magnitude, the all-women Hawaii big-wave contest, which debuted in 2020 in a video format that will continue this year, the company announced.
Big-wave champion Keala Kennelly, a Kauai native who won last year’s Magnitude, said she’s stoked to be selected for both events and about the full dance card for herself and other female surfers this winter, from the Triple Crown events at Haleiwa, Sunset Beach and Pipeline to the HIC Pipeline Pro to the World Surf League Peahi Challenge at Jaws.
“I’m super grateful that Red Bull is bringing Magnitude back,” she said Tuesday in a phone interview. “They’re gonna provide camera crews and safety just like last year for Jaws, Waimea and one of the outer North Shore reefs.”
She was also looking forward to Friday’s opening ceremonies for the Eddie at Waimea Bay. In 2018 Kennelly was the first and only woman invited to compete in the Eddie, which hasn’t taken place since John John Florence took home the trophy in 2016.
This year the roster of invitees includes five other women—Andrea Moller, Emily Erickson, Justine Dupont, Makani Adric and Paige Alms — and 39 men.
“Positive changes are coming into effect,” said Kennelly, a co-founder of the Committee for Equity in Women’s Surfing, which was instrumental in the unanimous December 2020 passage of a Honolulu City Council “surf equity bill” requiring gender equity for sports activities requiring a park use permit.
She added she was excited to be getting back in the water after recently being sidelined for nine months due to surgery for “a massive hip tear.”
While “it’s way more gangster if you can paddle in” to a big wave, she added she would likely participate in a new, tow-in category in the Magnitude.
A new prize, for the Eddie Aikau Wave of the Bay, will be awarded to the rider of the “biggest, deepest, rideable wave at Waimea,” the foundation announced.
