Will The Eddie Go? Surfers at the Opening Ceremony Said Odds Are Good

On Friday, some of the world's most respected big wave surfers gathered at Waimea Bay on the North Shore for the opening ceremony of the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational.

The contest is revered as one of the most prestigious surfing events in the world, and the most respected in Hawaii. It's a tribute to the late Hawaiian lifeguard, surfer, and waterman Eddie Aikau, the North Shore's first lifeguard.

Because the contest only gets the go-ahead if "wave face heights consistently reach 40 feet" during the holding period, it's only run 10 times since its inception in 1984.

According to the KHON2 news team that covered the contest's opening ceremony, there's a good chance The Eddie will go this year.

KHON captioned the news segment above:

"The 2023/2024 Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational opening ceremony brought dozens of new faces and familiar ones too."

Nikki Schenfeld reported from Waimea Bay:

"There is a lot of excitement up here on the North Shore because it is an El Niño season and that means the big waves are coming. And people are saying it's not a matter of if The Eddie will go this year, it's a matter of when."

Schenfeld added:

"Only twice in its thirty-seven years has the contest been held back-to-back."

But contest director and former pro surfer Liam McNamara is hopeful and says there's a good chance it'll run this year.

According to McNamara:

"On a normal year, it's like fifty-fifty, maybe even twenty percent chance of running the year after. This year I'd say more like a seventy-five percent chance because we have El Niño and all these big swells we've been getting."

Luke Shepardson, last year's winner, was hopeful too, saying:

"They're saying it's supposed to be El Niño, and in 2016 there were about ten, twenty-foot swells so if it's anything like that I think it'll run again."

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