Peter Mel was crowned the 2012 Big Wave World Tour Champion. Photo: Big Wave World Tour
As the most of us are pulling out our bigger boards and shining them up for summers smaller waves, the Big Wave World Tour’s (BWWT) top 12 have wrapped up another year of competition. Thanks to a lovely La Nina season keeping swells well below the XXL range in the Northern Hemisphere, the BWWT was unable to run the second two events of the season: The Nelscott Reef Big Wave Classic in Lincoln City, Oregon and The Peligroso at Todos Santos in Ensenada, Mexico. After running 2 of the 4 scheduled events on the tour, Northern California’s Peter Mel was crowned this year’s champion. Mel made it as far as the Semifinals at the first stop in Punta De Lobos, Chile and went on to clinch his first Tour win at Peru’s Pico Alto in 35-foot plus waves.
The response towards Mel’s success has been overwhelmingly positive, thanks to a tight-knit community. Kelly Slater tweeted, “It’s about time Pete,” when Mel won the Pico Alto event, and Grant “Twiggy” Baker was one of the first to post “Congratulations Pete.”
“On behalf of the Big Wave World Tour, I would like to say we are all ecstatic to have him [Peter Mel] as a Champion,” Tour Creator/Director (and big wave surfer) Gary Linden remarked, “He is such a well respected figure in our sport, and he is always a favorite to win. Pete is just out there because he loves surfing big waves; this is just the cream on top of the cake for him.” Beyond his prominent status in the big wave community, Linden thinks that Mel’s geographic heritage has a huge impact. “We’ve had a Brazilian Champ (Burle) and a Hawaiian Champ (Sterling) but to finally have a champion from the West Coast really brings our message here.” And seeing as the Tour is still in its infancy, Linden welcomes such great exposure.
“It’s a labor of love,” says Linden. “Every year at Mavericks we sit in a circle and go around saying what we are thankful for, and this year the general feeling this year was that we were all just happy to have another year with eachother, another go at it.”
The drive for the tour to succeed is obvious, with a field full of heavyweights and an experienced Tour Director constantly pushing the limits. Having been with ASP from the beginning and now the BWWT, it is no surprise the Gary Linden has big plans for the future. When asked about it, however, Linden only hints towards things to come.
“We are currently looking for partners for the possibility of a BWWT event at Jaws,” Linden reports, “and we have talked about the future possibility of working with the ASP to sanction our events so surfers can compete in both.” While neither of these are for sure, it does guarantee the fans one thing: Linden and the Top 12 are dedicated to legitimizing their sport, their way.
The 2011/2012 BWWT was successful, says Linden. “Our goal was to crown a World Champion of Big Wave Surfing, and I felt like I hit a home run the first time (Carlos Burle 2010) and now have 2 more (Jamie Sterling 2011 and Peter Mel 2012).”
But with the waiting period for the 2012/2013 Quiksilver Ceremonial Chile already open, it wouldn’t be fair to say things are winding down for Linden and the rest.
“We have a lot of great things in store for this season, and we are happy to get the momentum growing, people are beginning to realize what a great sport Big Wave Surfing really is.”
