The Eddie Swell That Didn’t Go

Feb 19, 2024 · Comments

A week ago, it looked like we were about to have our second Eddie in two years this week—something that hasn’t happened in over 20 years. A massive storm was forecasted to form northwest of Hawaii, and all the buzz in the big wave world was that the Eddie was going to run on Friday. They even put the event on yellow alert, letting all of the competitors know that they needed to be ready to fly to Hawaii if the forecasted continued to shape up.

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Unfortunately, that didn’t quite happen—at least not in the way that we’d hoped it would. The Waimea buoy hit 20 feet at 17 seconds last Thursday, which is pretty darn impressive. Generally speaking 20 at 17 are Eddie numbers—but those numbers have to hold steady throughout the day for the swell to be legit. Unfortunately, the swell peaked overnight, and by Friday morning the buoys were down to 16 feet at 17 seconds. That’s still proper XL swell, but it isn’t enough to call the Eddie on—especially when the swell continues to drop throughout the day.

To add insult to injury, the storm formed up a bit too close to Oahu, and when the swell hit, it came with north/northwest wind, which is basically straight onshore. North/northeast is somewhat doable, but northwest is as bad as it gets on the North Shore. Between the swell peaking overnight and the wind turning to an adverse direction, it was a no-brainer to call the event off.

Despite the lack of an event today, the North Shore was still in the XL range for the first time in months, and a small crew of hard core chargers headed out to Waimea to test themselves on what turned out to be a windy, rugged day. Grant “Twiggy” Baker led the charge, putting in laps and ensuring that he’ll receive another invite to the Eddie next year.

The waiting period for the Eddie closes at the end of February, and there are no major swells on the horizon for Hawaii, so it looks as if 2024 will fail to see the event run. But part of the mystique of the Eddie is the fact that it runs so infrequently, and the commitment to a solid 20-foot day gives the contest its credibility. Hopefully we see a big enough swell next year.

In the meantime, the North Shore season doesn’t really close until the end of April, which means we have two more months to do some underground charging. Here’s hoping that we finally get some El Nino action and have an epic late season.

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The Eddie Swell That Didn’t Go