It’s been a weird week in the surf world. One of the most anticipated events got the green light, but we could also be witnessing a complete stop for the major events in Hawaii.
Saturday saw the opening round of the Big Wave Nazare Challenge get the go ahead as the conditions had the world’s best chargers eyeing their chance at immortality. Nazare has been a recent phenomenon and is home to one of the coolest viewing perches, as well as some of the best and biggest rides ever captured on camera. It’s not easy for everyone to get to the Portuguese break on short notice, but it’s worth their efforts.
Two of the four first round heats were completed Saturday before they decided to hold off for a better session. But Billy Kemper continued his glorious few months by advancing out of heat one. Both Hawaii’s Kemper and Nathan Florence made it through the session, along with Brazil’s Lucas Chianca.
The second heat had a familiar face on top once all was said and done. Peter Mel, a long-time big-wave specialist and current commentator for the WSL, got the best wave of the day. His 7.33 on a behemoth was more than enough to make it through, but very little else came through for he or his competitors. Mel, Portugal’s Alex Botelho and Aussie Jamie Mitchell survived to advance to the semifinals.
Two other opening heats were still set to take place, possibly as soon as today. Among those still ready for their first taste of Nazare were Hawaii’s Kai Lenny, Makuakai Rothman, Ian Walsh and Kealii Mamala.
But while there may still be plenty of Aloha State representation in the event, the same may not be true for WSL events in Hawaii for the 2019 season. Due to the County of Oahu’s reluctance to allow the WSL to amend its permit requests for next year, there seems to be a growing possibility that there may not be any of the major contests we come to expect in their usual locales.
Now, I can understand the county’s point of view, not wanting to appear biased when it comes to WSL events in favor of any other permitted events on the island. Based on their fairly vague statements to this point, they seem to feel that with the filing deadline having passed, no changes can be made to the WSL requests.
The change being sought is to swap the timing for the Pipe Masters and the Pipe Pro. So the Pipe Masters would actually start the 2019 season and the Pipe Pro would close it out to end the Triple Crown. The WSL says that the dates would remain the same as requested, just switching which event is to happen at which time.
It’s a pretty straight-forward request and would merely require adjusting a few words on the permits. But the events definitely do inspire different levels of traffic and interest, so they do require different levels of assistance from the county.
It will be a shame if this small disagreement leads to there being no Hawaii events in 2019, which is something that the WSL is claiming to be a real possibility at the moment. Whether they are just posturing remains to be seen, but their rhetoric to this point does not indicate as much.
I hope to have a little more on the situation in the near future, but for now, let’s hope against hope that the two sides remain open to a solution beneficial to all involved.
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David Simon can be reached at dsimon@thegardenisland.com.
