Two days before they were slated to make history as the first women to compete in today’s Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational at Waimea Bay, the six female contestants — Makani Adric, Paige Alms, Justine Dupont, Emily Erickson, Keala Kennelly and Andrea Moller — didn’t talk about winning.

Each of them said they saw the storied 39-year-old event as far more than a contest, and it was a reward in itself to be invited to share the usually fraught, crowded lineup with just seven other surfers per heat in the one-day competition, which was last held in 2016.

“I’m approaching it as a historic event where women are getting to surf the Eddie for the first time, not as a contest, really, but going in and surfing in an expression session with a bunch of my friends,” said Kennelly, 44, a Honolulu resident and Kauai native who won the 2018 Peahi (Jaws) challenge, the 2021 Red Bull Magnitude and many other women’s big-wave and shortboard championship tour events.

“It’s such a special event, more of a coming together of the big-wave community, starting with the ohana feeling at the opening ceremonies — the Aikau family are so welcoming,” added Kennelly, who was the first woman chosen for the Eddie by director Clyde Aikau as an alternate in 2017 and as a contestant every year since.

“Waimea is so iconic and the Eddie is the ultimate in big-wave surfing,” said Alms, 34, a two-time women’s big-wave world champion who also won last year’s Red Bull Magnitude best ride and best paddle-in awards.

This year’s Eddie enjoys further landmark status by fielding women alongside men in a world-class event, without separate divisions, the Maui native said, adding, “I’ve never done that in a big-wave surfing contest.”

“The women are not separated from the men,” confirmed event spokesperson Linda Ipsen, noting that, as usual, there will be one Eddie champion overall, with the top scorer from each of the eight heats also receiving prize money.

Praising what she has found to be the supportive, close-knit community of elite big-wave specialists, Alms was looking forward to “an amazing, fun day with the camaraderie of big-wave surfing — girls and guys all together, the way you normally have it in the lineup.”

Moller, one of the first two women to surf Peahi, towing in with Maria Souza in 2004 and paddling into the giant waves in 2007, added the perspective of a fellow first responder, as Eddie Aikau was the first city lifeguard on Oahu’s North Shore, stationed at Waimea Bay. He disappeared in 1978 after paddling his surfboard to seek rescue for the crew of the voyaging canoe Hokule‘a after it capsized at sea.

“Eddie was a lifeguard, saving lives, helping people,” said Moller, 44, a Brazilian who relocated at age 19 to Maui, where she works full time as a paramedic. “To me, this is different than competing for money or status or points or a world title; it’s keeping his legacy alive, and that’s why it’s so deeply important to me and I’m so honored.”

While many of the 40 Eddie contestants and 12 alternates fly in from all over the world, North Shore natives Erickson, 33, and Adric, 26, expressed gratitude that Waimea happens to be their home break.

Erickson, who rushed back from Tahiti when the event was called on, “running through the L.A. airport and barely making it,” said she’s been surfing Waimea since age 19, when she paddled out to find no other women in the lineup except her friend and surf buddy Wrenna Delgado.

She learned from her father, North Shore legend Roger Erickson, who “was in a bunch of the Eddies and he did really good, got very notable waves, and was known for being a standout,” she said. “So I think seeing me take that path is a good continuation of the story for him and another way to enjoy Waimea.”

Erickson is winner of several Red Bull Magnitude and World Surf League big-wave awards, and the first women’s championship at Oregon’s Nelscott Reef. She added that her husband, who was trapped in Australia for 14 months during the COVID-19 pandemic but returned in time to nurse her through knee surgery and help her get back in surfing shape, will also be on the beach with their family and friends.

Adric started out boogie boarding at age 7 at Haleiwa’s Alii beach with her grandmother and siblings.

“Being born and raised on the North Shore and having such a big family here — so big I can’t even count how many aunties and uncles — (has made) a huge impact on my surfing,” she said.

Adric was runner-up in the 2020-2021 Red Bull Magnitude women’s big-wave event and winner of that year’s people’s choice award.

Meanwhile, Frenchwoman Dupont, winner of several Red Bull/World Surf League women’s big-wave awards, lives halfway around the world but wouldn’t miss the Eddie for anything.

“Being invited to the Eddie is a huge honor, especially when you are not from Hawaii,” Dupont, fresh from surfing as the only woman on an expedition to California’s offshore Cortes Banks, said in an email to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

“I feel like Waimea is the original big-wave spot,” said the 31-year-old native of Bordeaux, who has won several WSL big-wave world titles as well as tow- and paddle-in events at both Peahi and Nazare, Portugal.

Dupont added she has not surfed Waimea for years, having recently been more focused on surfing Peahi when she comes to the islands. Alms and Moller said they usually surf Peahi, their local break, during the big northern swells that simultaneously stir Waimea into action.

With regard to the danger and fear of fast, powerful waves with faces ranging from a minimum of 40 feet to more than 50 feet high, after making sure you’re physically and mentally ready, “you can’t really go out thinking about the what-ifs,” Alms said.

When you go for a wave, Moller explained, “your brain has to be 100% into that moment; you’re not just going to paddle gung-ho for anything.”

Dupont said she plans “to just enjoy every second of it. Maybe I will catch that one wave I will remember for the rest of my life.”

Only Kennelly expressed some hesitation, due to the weakness and pain she has been suffering since a major injury at Jaws in 2020, for which she won the open-gender award for best big-wave wipeout.

“My back leg got torn out of the hip socket, which is why I now wear a harness with the (board) leash attached on my back,” rather than an ankle leash, she said. Still, there was no chance she wouldn’t go for it.

After years of demanding that event organizers and city park permitting departments provide gender parity in prize purses and contest venues, Kennelly, Alms and Moller said the co-ed Eddie, held in the sport’s most famous proving grounds, would be a celebration of equity.

They said they would be reuniting at Waimea with Californian Bianca Valenti, a veteran charger at Maverick’s and fellow surf equity advocate. Valenti is an Eddie alternate this year, along with Australia’s Laura Enever, the North Shore’s Polly Ralda, Mexico’s Isabelle Leonhardt and Brazilians Raquel Heckert and Silvia Nabuco.

It was also important, Kennelly said, to recognize and thank the Eddie organizers for being ahead of the curve.

While WSL championship tour women’s events were added at Haleiwa, Sunset and Pipeline in 2022, “Clyde and the (other) Aikaus started inviting women when every other event on the North Shore was excluding them,” she said.

“They weren’t required to invite women, they were just doing it, and you would think of all the events, the Eddie would be the most unlikely to invite women because it’s the most dangerous.”

Kennelly wanted to make sure the family got “all credit for supporting, believing in and including us, for giving women this chance.”

Waimea Bay, Dupont said, was unique in surfers’ hearts because “it is where it has all begun — so many stories can be told around this wave.”

Today, if the Eddie goes as planned, spectators will get to watch the women add a great new story to the epic blue walls.