Surfer Nets $68,000 for Riding the Year’s Biggest Wave
By H. Thayer Walker
On Friday, April 22, stars of the surf world, along with an online audience tuning in via webcast, joined a panel of judges at Anaheim’s Grove Theater for the Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards. Dan Moore, a 48-year-old surf veteran from Oahu’s Sunset Beach, picked up the 2005 Biggest Wave Award for the 68-foot monster he caught on December 15, 2004. His ride was just two feet shy of the world record captured last year by surfer Pete Cabrinha.
On the day that much of the surf world stood transfixed by The Eddie, a legendary big-wave contest held in Waimea Bay on Oahu's North Shore, Moore and an elite crew of surfers towed into waves twice as big at Jaws, an outer reef-break off Maui. Moore pulled into a 68-foot wave, the year’s biggest ride according the Billabong XXL officials. On Friday night he was awarded $68,000 for the effort, $1,000 for every foot.
"It was an amazing day, just massive," Moore recalled. "We saw that wave forming way outside and my partner, Mark Anderson, made sure I got it…I was going faster than I've ever gone on a wave in my life."
Moore wasn't going fast enough. The monster wave eventually caught up with him, and Moore was smashed on the inside section. "When I saw the lip coming over me, I knew I was in for it. It was just a full rinse cycle. Now I know what a gecko feels like when a person steps on it."
"I'm kind of surprised he pulled through after he ate it," says Makua Rothman, who won the contest in 2003 at the age of 18 when he caught a 66-foot wave. "It's really gnarly. You just hope your arms and legs stay attached to your body."
Moore's wave was two feet shorter than the 70-foot beast caught by last year's XXL award winner, Pete Cabrinha, also a big-wave world record according to event organizers.
Source: Outside Online
>> SURF NEWS INDEX <<
|
