waiting period for women waimea bay championship opens this week tow surfer.com

WAITING PERIOD FOR WOMEN’S WAIMEA BAY CHAMPIONSHIP

OPENS THIS WEEK

DID YOU KNOW: THERE’S A WOMEN’S BIG-WAVE

CONTEST AT WAIMEA THIS FALL

Posted 9-6-17

It probably says a lot about the state of professional women’s big-wave surfing promotion and press coverage, but until today I had no idea that the waiting period for the women’s-only contest starting at Waimea opened this week. The Women’s Waimea Bay Championship officially opened for biz on October 1^st, and the waiting period runs until November 21^st.

This is the first strictly women-only standalone big-wave contest. There have been women’s-only heats at events at Nelscott Reef and Jaws, and last year’s Mavericks event was slated to hold a women’s heat, too, until the contest was shelved after financial problems.

“The more high profile competitive opportunities in women’s big wave surfing the better,” San Francisco’s Bianca Valenti said. “It’s one of the key elements for progression and to paving a better future for female big-wave surfing.”

Emi Erickson. Photo by Maria Fernanda

The field is pretty big—as many as 26 competitors—lots of which are relative unknowns to the wider surf community. The usual suspects are there: Paige Alms, Bianca Valenti, Sarah Gerhardt, Keala Kennelly, Emi Erickson, and Andrea Moller, among other well-known chargers, but there are lots of underground big-wave surfers invited too.

Contest directors Betty Depolito and Wrenna Delgado only found out they’d won the permits necessary for the event in late August. Partial funding is coming from Red Bull, but it’s unclear who else is supporting the event financially.

The early-autumn waiting period appears to be because whoever holds the permit for the is-it-happening-is-it-not Eddie event has priority later in the winter, and local ordinances won’t allow two waiting periods at a time.

It’s not unheard of for Waimea to crank in the fall, so here’s hoping this contest gets the swell it deserves.

Here is the list of invitees:

MAKANI ADRIC
JESSICA ANDERSON
JOANA ANDRADE
PAIGE ALMS
EASKEY BRITTON
JUSTINE DUPONT
EMILY ERICKSON
MICHAELA FREGONESE
SARAH GERHARDT
BRITTANY GOMULKA
TAYLA HANAK
RAQUEL HECKERT
SHEILA LEE
BLAKE LEFKOE
ANDREA MOLLER
SILVIA NABUCO
REMI NEALON
KELTA O’ROURKE
NICOLE PACELLI
FELICITY PALMATEER
EMILIA PERRY
POLLY RALDA
GYPSY ANN RUSS
MOMO SAKUMA
TAMMY LEE SMITH
SAVANNAH SHAUGHNESSY
KIYOMI SHEPPARD
JAMILAH STAR
JENNY USELDINGER
BIANCA VALENTI
SHAKIRA WESTDORP
CARLY WILSON