Ooooh, Hawaii loves a rhyme (and really, so do I). The Eddie goes when "the bay calls the day". It doesn't call often. In 25 years of this big wave surf competition, it's happened only 8 times. Today was one of those eight times. I woke up this morning and figured out it was ON. CRH had already sent me a text saying that at 5am people were already walking 2 miles in to Waimea Bay. Waves were 35-45ft high and people were heading North Shore in droves. I decided that I really wanted to go, because it is a rare event and we do live in Hawaii after all and honestly, what else did I have to do today?? I drove up and stopped near Pipeline, thinking this was a bad decision. In this traffic stand still, I decided to go up Pupukea and hike down to this overlook where you can see Waimea Bay. As I turned into the big curve at Pupukea Road, there were people lining the road and the entrance to the spot where I was headed, but once I drove in there were not very many cars. I hiked to my spot and several photographers and onlookers were up there, but really not very many at all. It ended up being the perfect spot to watch. I had a great, unobstructed view! I watched until it was time to go get Eve from school for her dentist appt.
It is normally a 45 minute drive from Ka'a'awa to Haleiwa, but I knew today would take longer with the traffic jam along the bay. There were thousands of people up here today to watch this event and people were literally lining the bay. I picked her up and 2 hours and 15 minutes later, we arrived 1 hour late for her appt. Fortunately, they still saw her b/c they knew what we had just driven through. I decided to go ahead and brave the ride home because I knew once it ended and the masses departed, traffic would be even worse. It only took an hour and a half to get home. I'm glad this is a one day event!
Pro surfer Greg Long from California won with a perfect score of 100...in case you were wondering. He won $98,000 for his efforts today. Kelly Slater won 2nd place with a measly $55,000. The next competition is the Billabong Pipeline Masters. I'm sure I'll make it at least once. The waves today were amazing!! There's another swell coming in Friday too...so exciting!
2 comments:
Amy! I was listening to NPR last night on my way home from work and they were commenting on the Eddie. It made me think of you and I was sooo hoping you would get some great pictures and stories to tell. :) Thanks for sharing, I can't wait to see what happens on Friday!
My pleasure!! It was so awesome to see! I'm hoping a nice swell rolls in tomorrow too. :) I doubt we'll see that size again though for a while.
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