Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
WAIMEA BAY, Hawaii — I'll admit, my last "Have You Seen This?" wasn't as eye-catching as I had hoped. (I even got a comment that said, "That's not news at all").
This time, I really was caught between two competing stories. First, Kilauea Volcano, which has been erupting on and off since its last continuous awakening that ended in late 2018, roared back to life the day before Christmas Eve with a flow that covered the crater floor and fountains that spewed lava into the air.
And the day before that, Hawaii got an early present in the form of the best surfers in the world who dared to take on Waimea Bay on the North Shore of Oahu in the "Super Bowl of surfing," the RipCurl Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational.
The competition's unique requirement is that open-ocean swells must be 20 feet or higher (with generally favorable winds), meaning true wave heights are greater than 40 feet. Because of this, the event has only been held 10 times and before Dec. 22, 2024, it had only once been staged in back-to-back years.
The competition has an official window starting Dec. 1 each year, with the "Blessing of Eddie Aikau" ceremony at Waimea Bay, and can last until late February. If competition-caliber swells are spotted, qualified contestants have 12 hours to get to Waimea Bay to wait for the official green light, which comes from contest organizers around 8 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time, when the swell is supposedly forecast to arrive.
Female surfers were introduced into the field for the first time in this competition run.
If you want the longer version of the highlights, watch them here.
Have You Seen This?
Lawn decoration fools toddler
It's like coaches and parents have been saying for years: "If at first you don't succeed, keep testing that artificial candy cane to see if it somehow becomes real."
