Surfers Vying for Billabong's Big Wave Awards Chase Death and the Endless Winter

By: Chris Mauro | October 29th, 2009 at 4:30pm

The best big-wave surfers in the world stop at nothing to chase huge swells, even if they're headed straight back into the dead of winter. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the race for the annual Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards.

As the surf world's most prestigious big-wave honors, the Billabong XXL Awards are divvied into a handful of distinct categories including Ride of the Year, Biggest Wave, Best Tube Ride, Worst Wipeout and Best Overall Performance. The race for each prize begins anew each May, even before the checks are cashed by the previous year's winners.

The XXL Awards are already in their tenth year, but the big-wave landscape has changed dramatically in that same period. In its early days it would be months before any viable nominees started surfacing. Back then the consensus was the Northern Hemisphere had a stranglehold on the planet's biggest surf. But because the Northern Hemisphere sits idle during its summer months things wouldn't really heat up until November or December, when huge winter storms kicked up the surf.

In truth, the Northern Hemisphere was merely more thoroughly explored. But over the last decade, breakthroughs in search and forecasting technologies have led surfers thirsty for heavy-water adventure to pore over nautical charts of the Southern Hemisphere, especially those along the blustery coasts of South Africa and Southern Australia, including Tasmania.

Surfers have been reeling over the discoveries. Turns out, there's some damn serious surf at the bottom of the world, which is why there's no shortage of XXL nominees in October, and it's also why big-wave enthusiast spend their time chasing an Endless Winter. Southern Hemisphere storms kick into gear around April. By the time they subside in late September, the Northern Hemisphere starts making noise.

With predictions of an El Nino pattern still holding steady, wave chasers believe this could be a banner year for the North Pacific. Big wave surfers are having a tough time committing to any holiday plans for this very reason. This season should get interesting.