When Makani Adric heard the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational at Waimea Bay was greenlighted for Jan. 11, she was “super excited.”

That’s because last season, when she was a first-time invitee, wave sizes and conditions never measured up to the high standards of the event, which hasn’t run since 2016.

“I didn’t really do anything special” to prepare, said the 5-foot-1, 26-year-old North Shore native. “I just took the day off before to bring myself together, try to breathe, come up with a game plan, get my boards ready and all my gear,” which includes her flotation vest — a crucial life-support equipment in powerful, monster waves that can throw you deep and hold you under.

The last time the Eddie ran, it was still a male-only event. Since then, the organizers have broken with tradition, progressing from a single female invitee, Keala Kennelly, in 2017 as an alternate, to this year’s six female and 34 male contestants, plus six female and 12 male alternates.

When the one-day event, which requires consistent waves of at least 20 feet in height, by Hawaiian measure, was called off for Jan. 11 due to deteriorating wind and swell conditions, Adric paddled out at Waimea for another competition: the Red Bull Magnitude. That one invites qualifying women to compete at Waimea and the outer reefs on Oahu’s North Shore, and Pe‘ahi on Maui, through Feb. 28.

While she earns her living working as an assistant for several clients, and thinks of herself as a free surfer rather than a pro, Adric expressed gratitude for the recent opening of opportunities for women to compete in big and high-performance waves, from Waimea Bay to Haleiwa, Sunset Beach and Banzai Pipeline.

“Surfing has always been a male-dominant sport, so to be able to see women having their own surf events, or being invited to the Eddie Aikau, changes a lot of things in surfing and the Hawaiian culture,” she said.

Because Magnitude is not a permitted, exclusive, beach park event but a virtual contest in which contestants submit their two best rides on waves with at least 24-foot faces, contestants have to compete with recreational surfers for waves — but Adric, who first paddled out at Waimea Bay at 15, and also shortboards at Ehukai, Rocky Point and elsewhere, is used to that.

On Jan. 11, “to be honest, the crowd wasn’t bad, but the conditions were very bumpy, and it ended up getting smaller very quickly,” she said.

“I’m glad they didn’t hold it that day,” she added, “because with the bumps, you can’t see if someone’s dropping in on you, or someone’s board can hit you because of the wind — my name means ‘wind’ in Hawaiian — and I was thinking ‘please, not today!’ ”

But the experience, as usual, was worth it. “Even if I have bad surf sessions, they just teach and get me prepared for the next.”

Adric praised the watermen Magnitude provides for safety support, but noted that with so many people out in the water, she knows she has to be able to depend on herself.

While she acknowledges the danger, “just the feeling of doing a sport like this is the reward,” she said, adding that, after all the physical training— Brazilian jujitsu, cardio and lifting weights, “the most important is the mentality has to be 100 percent.”

That includes looking forward to having fun.

“It’s nice to get a reward if you win, but surfing is something I grew up doing, it’s part of my culture — that’s why I don’t compete as much as other people,” Adric said.

The Eddie is currently on yellow alert for a possible green light Sunday or Monday, according to co-director Clyde Aikau; Magnitude sessions may also be held Sunday at the North Shore outer reefs and Pe‘ahi, said Red Bull spokeswoman Keely Bruns.

For more information, visit redbull.com/us-en/events/magnitude and theeddieaikau.com.