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The Morning After with JOB & Kaipo celebrates the Red Bull Big Wave Awards
Jamie O'Brien and Kaipo Guerrero break down the 2020 Red Bull Big Wave Awards, live and direct from Jamie's house on the North Shore.
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The Morning After with JOB and Kaipo
Jamie O’Brien and Kaipo Guerrero host an after party show to break down the Red Bull Big Wave Awards.
After a stacked month-and-a-half in oversized surfing, the last of the 2020 Red Bull Big Wave Awards were handed out this week with the highly coveted XXL Biggest Wave Award and prestigious Ride Of The Year categories rounding out the honour roll. Well, almost.
While Billy Kemper took home Men's Ride Of The Year and Kai Lenny claimed Men's XXL Biggest Wave honours, those same two categories are both still up in the air on the women's side of proceedings, with Maya Gabeira and Justine Dupont being forced to sweat it out a little longer as both have waves being reviewed as potential Guinness World Records!
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The women's nominees for the 2020 Red Bull Big Wave Awards XXL Biggest Wave
Justine Dupont and Maya Gabeira lead the pack in the nominees for the Women's XXL Biggest Wave award in the 2020 Red Bull / WSL Big Wave Awards.
As well as these final trophies, an incredible lineup of champions added serious scalps to their belts to claim division wins in everything from biggest paddle wave to best wipeout and overall performance of the year. See below for our full list of winners.
For a full debrief of all the insane action, the best of the high (and occasional low) lights, as well as some fast humour and hot takes on all that went down we're catching up with two of surfing’s more acerbic commentators. That's North Shore veteran Jamie O’Brien and the World Surf League's own Kaipo Guerrero, live from JOB’s house on the North Shore.
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Jamie and Kaipo have lined up an all-star guest list to join them via video, so if you’re a fan of everyone from Kai Lenny to Lucas Chumbo and Justine Dupont, to Chris Cote and Ivy Miller, you’re going to love the next hour of entertainment.
In these current crazy times we weren’t able to roll out the blue carpet and throw a traditional award ceremony, so consider this the after-party for a party that never happened. So get comfortable and tune in to The Morning After, with Kaipo and JOB, streaming now in the player above. Enjoy!
Red Bull Big Wave Awards – 2020 Winners
Women's Ride Of The Year
To be decided!
Men's Ride Of The Year
Billy Kemper
Women's XXL Biggest Wave
To be decided!
Men's XXL Biggest Wave
Kai Lenny
Women's Overall Performance
Justine Dupont
Men's Overall Performance
Kai Lenny
Women's Paddle
Paige Alms
Men's Paddle
Eli Olson
Best Wipeout
Keala Kennelly
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Week 5 – Meet the Ride of the Year Nominees
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2020 Red Bull Big Wave Awards Ride of the Year Nominees
These are the Ride of the Year nominees in the 2020 Red Bull Big Wave Awards, by WSL
We've made it! The final week of the 2020 Red Bull Big Wave Awards are upon us and you know what that means: Ride of the Year – the most prestigious of the annual big wave honours.
But, did you hear? Yesterday – Monday, 17 August – the WSL's Kaipo Guerrero and Strider Wasilewski announced on World Surf Weekly that Kai Lenny had won the cbdMD XXL Biggest Wave award, for that beastly – but, according to Kai, weirdly smooth – righthander at Praia do Norte during the Nazaré Tow Surfing Challenge. Watch Kai's winning wave below...
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January swells at Nazaré
Alex Laurel captures the world's bravest surfers charging into the peaks at the famed Portuguese big wave spot.
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The women's nominees for the 2020 Red Bull Big Wave Awards XXL Biggest Wave
Justine Dupont and Maya Gabeira lead the pack in the nominees for the Women's XXL Biggest Wave award in the 2020 Red Bull / WSL Big Wave Awards.
So, keep it tuned in to the WSL Big Wave Awards homepage and @redbull_surfing for up-to-the-minute updates on this potential world-record-setting moment.
Circling back to this week, when you check out the Ride of the Year nominees you will notice some very familiar faces if you've been following along over the last month.
Kai Lenny, Billy Kemper, Russ Bierke and Eli Olson are leading the pack in the Men's category. And — surprise! — Justine Dupont and Paige Alms are frontrunners for the women. Watch the 2020 Red Bull Big Wave Awards Ride of the Year Nominees doing their thing in the video at the top of this page.
The Ride of the Year winners will be announced on Monday, 24 August, at 4pm PT (1am CEST on Tuesday, 25 August) on the World Surf League's World Surf Weekly show. Don't miss the finale!
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Week 4 – Meet the XXL Biggest Wave Nominees
What can we say, it's an extra proud moment for us over here this week, since two of the brightest big wave stars in the Red Bull family took the Red Bull / World Surf League Big Wave Awards Overall Performance crowns.
For the women, France's Justine Dupont convincingly clinched the coveted performance honours with her mind-blowing performances at Nazaré this past winter. (And watch out for her in the XXL Biggest Wave category, too!)
For the men, Hawaii's Kai Lenny stole the show with a convincing winter performance himself. Remember, for example, his antics, along with Lucas Chumbo, at the Nazaré Tow Surfing Challenge?
But this week, it's the big one, literally: the XXL Biggest Wave Award. There are some monsters – perhaps even a world record – to consider.
First, let's talk world records. It all comes down to Justine Dupont and Maya Gabeira, who both snagged the biggest waves of their lives at Nazaré this winter. World record buzz immediately swirled, but now it's up to the World Surf League's expert panel of judges to make the call. Other entries include Paige Alms, Michaela Fregonese and Annie Reickert at Jaws, and Michelle des Bouillones at Nazaré.
In the men's category, we certainly have Kai Lenny and his massive right-hander at Nazaré, ridden during the Tow Surfing Challenge, that is a solid contender. But Lucas Chumbo, Sebastian Steudtner, Ian Walsh, Andrew Cotton, Caio Vaz, Conor Maguire, Nic von Rupp, and others are definitely in the running with beasts from Jaws and Nazaré.
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The men's nominees for the 2020 Red Bull Big Wave Awards XXL Biggest Wave
Kai Lenny and Lucas Chumbo lead the pack in the nominees for the Men's XXL Biggest Wave award in the 2020 Red Bull / WSL Big Wave Awards.
Tune in to World Surf Weekly next Monday, August 17, to see who takes the big prize.
Week 3 – Meet the performers
And who won the women's and men's Paddle Awards, you ask?
As we hinted last week, it was an all-Hawaiian affair this year, with Paige Alms taking top honours for her smooth drop at Jaws and Eli Olson for his elevator drop at Jaws. See their interviews with the World Surf Weekly right here.
Okay, back to the Performers. While every category in the Red Bull Big Wave Awards is prestigious for obvious reasons, the Overall Performance award always holds extra-special prestige, if you will. This is because a surfer not only has to prove that they're capable of attempting one of the biggest waves of the year, but capable of attempting the biggest waves of the year, over and over. No fear. No burnout.
If you stop and think of some names who might fit such a description, there's a good chance you already have a solid idea of which big wave surfers are at the top of the 2020 Red Bull/World Surf League Big Wave Awards Overall Performance nominees list.
In the women's category, we have Paige Alms (HAW), Justine Dupont (FRA), Michaela Fregonese (BRA), Maya Gabeira (BRA) and Felicity Palmateer (HAW):
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Red Bull Big Wave Awards Overall Performance – women's nominees
Meet the Women's nominees for the Overall Performance category in the 2020 Red Bull/World Surf League Big Wave Awards.
In the men's category (video at the top of the page), we have Grant Baker (ZAF), Russell Bierke (AUS), Lucas Chianca (BRA), Nathan Florence (HAW), Billy Kemper (HAW), Kai Lenny (HAW), Tom Lowe (GBR), Eli Olson (HAW), Nic Von Rupp (PRT) and Ian Walsh (HAW):
Winners will be announced next Monday, August 10, on World Surf Weekly, as well as the WSL's Instagram. Head over to the Red Bull Big Wave Awards page on WorldSurfLeague.com to see the nominees' in every category and don't stray far, because it's Performance Week and the WSL will be rolling out heaps of big wave content.
Week 2 – Meet the paddlers
Okay, hold up! Before we jump into the nominees for the Red Bull Big Wave Awards biggest paddle waves of the 2019–20 big wave season, shall we meet the winner of the Wipeout Award?
"It's never an award I set out to win at the beginning of the year, but I'll take it," Keala Kennelly told the World Surf League's Peter Mel, when he called her up to give her the news that fans voted her over-the-handlebars spill at Jaws the Wipeout of the Year.
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Red Bull Big Wave Awards Wipeout Finalists
For the first time in its 20 year history, the Red Bull Big Wave Awards are leaving the vote for the year's heaviest wipeout to the fans.
Sheesh, was it a tough set of wipeouts to best. Felip Cesarano's steamroller at Nazaré; Jerome Sahyoun's crusher at Mullaghmore; Torrey Meister's back-bender and Francisco Porcella's free fall at Jaws. The fans spoke however and Kennelly's was the one. What does she have to say about the upcoming big wave season? "No more wipeouts please."
Now, on to Paddle Week.
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2020 Red Bull Big Wave Paddle Award Nominees – Men
Meet the nominees for the 2020 Red Bull World Surf League Big Wave Men's Paddle Award.
Sticking a 15m-plus wave with only the power of your arms and hands remains one of the greatest feats in sport in our humble opinion. So, it's always exciting – and humbling – to see who the nominees are for year's Paddle Award.
This year, it's a single-location affair, with all eight submissions coming in from the world's most perfect monster – Jaws.
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2020 Red Bull Big Wave Paddle Award Nominees – Women
Meet the nominees for the 2020 Red Bull World Surf League Big Wave Women's Paddle Award.
For the women, it's between Paige Alms and Felicity Palmateer, who consistently blew minds during multiple swells at Jaws this winter. For the men, it's between Russell Bierke, Nathan Florence, Billy Kemper, Eli Olson and Ian Walsh, who all reworked what we imagined to be the limit in big wave paddle surfing.
Head over to Red Bull Big Wave Awards page on WorldSurfLeague.com to see the nominees' waves and don't stray far, because it's Paddle Week and the WSL will be rolling out heaps of big wave content.
Week 1 – Fans vote for the wipeout of the year
It’s a fact: we’ve hit the doldrums, that time of year when the big wave reserves are running low. The wildest Nazaré moments are starting to get a little fuzzy. The train-tunnel-sized Jaws tubes are fading. But, right on time, just like they have for the last 20 years, the Red Bull Big Wave Awards are upon us and we're back in heavy water mode.
Here at Red Bull Surfing, we’re extra stoked to be teaming up with the WSL to be the presenting partner for the 2020 and 2021 Big Wave Awards. To kick off the Big Wave Awards season, over the next five weeks we’ll bring you the biggest, heaviest moments from the 2019/20 winter season – perhaps even some Guinness world records?
There'll be plenty of big-wave surprises over the next month, but this week we’re bringing you the best one of all: 100 percent fan voting for the Wipeout Award category.
On Monday, the WSL kicked off Wipeout Week, meaning the judging ballots have been turned over to you to vote on one of five of the winter’s craziest wipeouts. Click here to study up and be heard.
Also this week, the WSL announced the finalists in the Big Wave Awards' five other categories:
- Women’s Best Overall Performance
- Men’s Best Overall Performance
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2020 Red Bull Big Wave Awards trailer
From Jaws to Nazare, the 2019/20 big wave season was one to remember. These are the highlights.
Every Monday over the next five weeks, either check here with us, or on the Red Bull Big Wave Awards page, to see the winners of each category.
Here are a few other key categories to watch out for:
- The Women’s Ride of the Year category. This is going to be a big one. Both Justine Dupont and Maya Gabeira are vying for potential Guinness world record waves from Nazaré.
- The Men’s Ride of the Year. This one’s most certainly coming down to either Jaws or Nazaré, and the competition is fierce. Remember Billy Kemper’s mind-bending tube acrobatics at Jaws on January 23? How about Kai Lenny, Lucas Chumbo and Seb Steudtner taking performance levels to new heights at Nazaré?
Time to bookmark the Big Wave Awards page, because we’re in for an epic next five weeks.
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