Well, it’s official. The Eddie isn’t running this week. But that doesn’t mean conditions at Waimea weren’t fairly spectacular, and Zeke Lau was in the water practicing for the event after a yellow light was issued on February 9.
Although it’s a bummer that the forecast that sparked the yellow light didn’t work out to be the best for The Eddie, there’s a reason the event is so legendary: because it only runs when it’s good enough. The Bay calls the day, as they say, and this time, the Bay kept her mouth shut.
Since the inaugural Eddie ran back in 1985, the contest has only been held 10 times. The scarcity of it is what makes it so special when it does get a green light, but that green light has some stiff demands. To run, wave heights at Waimea Bay have to consistently hit the 40-foot face mark, and the waiting period this year runs from December 14, 2023 through March 12, 2024. A long window, to be sure, but organizers need time to ensure the waves live up to the contest’s exacting reputation.
The swell that caused organizers to call a yellow light looked very promising at first. “We’ve been looking at a swell for the last few days,” contest director Liam McNamara told local media when the yellow was issued. “Today, we got an update that this swell does have some good potential to reach that 50-foot height range.”
But as time wore on and the swell marched towards the Bay, it lost a bit of steam and organizers were forced to kibosh it for now. As I said, though, just because the waves probably won’t be 40-feet or bigger doesn’t mean they weren’t plenty big enough to catch a whole lot of bombs.
