Surfing
Surfing
Women surfers dream big at Red Bull Magnitude 2024
While the challenge of riding giants that Red Bull Magnitude offers is obvious, the event also serves to build connections among women big-wave surfers.
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Now in its fourth year, Red Bull Magnitude is set to bring women big-wave surfers to Hawai’i for its 2024 edition. When the contest window opened on January 1, an elite field of 24 women started to chase some of world’s most massive and challenging waves. Over its two-month event window, the video-based contest promises to showcase women’s big-wave surfing at its best.
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What is Red Bull Magnitude?
Unlike traditional surf contests that take place on a single day at one location, Red Bull Magnitude runs two months during the peak of the Hawaiian big-wave season. A video-based competition, surfers may submit clips from any time between January 1 and February 29. The 2024 line-up includes big-wave stars such as Paige Alms, Izzi Gomez, Sky Lickle, and Annie Reickert. (Check back soon for a full start list.) What they all share is a love for riding big waves and the unbelievable feeling it gives them.
“The feeling I get riding big waves, I can’t doing anything else,” says Alms. “When you get your feet in the wax at the top of a 40-foot wave, the high of being on a wave that size is absolutely mind-expanding.”
Paige Alms surfs at Red Bull Magnitude 2022 at Jaws, Maui, Hawaii
© Christa Funk / Red Bull Content Pool
In the coming weeks, the women of Red Bull Magnitude will chase that elusive feeling and test themselves at three of Hawaii’s most beautiful and storied waves. Located on the North Shore of Oahu, Waimea Bay has a deep history in big-wave surfing and is one of the most famous big wave line-ups in the world. The Outer Reefs sit offshore from Oahu and offer a high-consequence open ocean challenge. On Maui, Pe’ahi (also known as Jaws) can confound even experienced big-wave surfers as the waves shift over its horseshoe-shaped reef.
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Red Bull Magnitude raises the bar in 2024
For 2024, Red Bull Magnitude has introduced an application process with the goal of elevating the competition while still providing an opportunity to up-and-coming chargers. The field will include eight surfers who have pre-qualified based on their results from last season. Pre-qualifiers include women such as the 2023 Red Bull Magnitude Overall Winner Paige Alms, Izzi Gomez, who won the Best Tow award in 2023, and Skylar Lickle and Katie McConnell who won the Overall and the Rookie of the Year award, respectively, at Red Bull Magnitude in 2022.
A video application will decide fourteen of the remaining spots in the 2024 Red Bull Magnitude line-up. To qualify, waves must be greater than 15 feet in size and filmed within the past 12 months. Surfers competing in Red Bull Magnitude for 2024 will also have attended a big-wave safety clinic with BWRAG, or taken a first aid and CPR course. Two spots are reserved for wild cards, who may have missed the 2022-2023 season due to injury. This year one wild card spot was designated to Red Bull Magnitude 2022 ‘Best Tow’ recipient, Annie Reickert, who missed last years’ competition due to injury.
Paige Alms, Skylar Lickle, Annie Reickert, and Katie McConnell
© Tahnei Roy / Red Bull Content Pool
The goal of the application process is to select the world’s best women big-wave surfers and provide a platform that shines a bright light on their talent and courage. Initially, Red Bull Magnitude opened its doors to all-comers in an effort to jumpstart participation among women in big-wave surfing. Seeing the sport mature and the women go bigger — and dream bigger — over the past few years has made for an inspiring sight. Now, Red Bull Magnitude hopes to elevate the competition still further and showcase the world’s best.
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The Red Bull Magnitude judging team
Legendary Kaua’i surfer Rochelle Ballard returns as a judge for this year’s edition of Red Bull Magnitude. Ballard’s notable for her pioneering, hard-charging performances at Pipeline and Backdoor, and in fact, she served as a stunt double for Kate Boswell in the 2002 film "Blue Crush." She’s joined by Andrea Moller, the first woman to paddle Maui’s fearsome Pe’ahi and Hawaiian Megan Abubo, who won six events on the Championship Tour and the 2007 Vans Triple Crown.
Rochelle Ballard surfs at Red Bull Magnitude 2023 at Waimea Bay, Oahu, HI
© Christa Funk / Red Bull Content Pool
Additionally, two talented Maui surfers bring their expertise to the judging panel. Kai Lenny and Ian Walsh are uniquely acquainted with Pe’ahi. An eclectic talent in the water, Lenny has ridden waves on just about every form of water craft and won the Nazaré Tow Surfing Challenge in 2020. At age 19, Walsh rode a 68-foot monster at Pe’ahi and developed many of the training and safety practices that are now the norm in big-wave surfing.
Though they can ride as many waves as they can catch during the event window, surfers choose three waves for the judges to score. Using a 10-point scale, the judging panel weighs factors such as the size of the wave, difficulty, and technique. If a surfer drops into the wave on a steeper, more critical section, she will likely receive a higher score. Red Bull Magnitude judges also look for complete rides, which rewards surfers’ good judgement and technique.
During the 2021-2022 edition of Red Bull Magnitude, Sky Lickle won the overall award on the strength of her ability to complete her waves. “I think what made my waves stand out is that I made all three of my waves,” she says. While big-wave surfer can appear to be crazy thrill-seekers, Lickle’s surfing shows the judgement and mindfulness it involves. “I’m not going to just go for it,” she says. “I’m making calculated decisions.”
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Dream Big
The 2022-2023 edition of Red Bull Magnitude saw some boundary-breaking performances. A stand-out whenever Pe’ahi turns on, Alms nearly made a massive barrel there last year, and won the overall for her skilled and courageous paddle surfing. On a wild day at Pe’ahi, Gomez towed into a beautiful, towering barrel that she described as the best wave of her life. “It just felt like time stopped,” Gomez says. “I felt like I was just in the barrel looking around like, ‘There is no way this is happening.’” Australian Felicity Palmateer won the break-out performance award for her surfing at Waimea.
Izzi Gomez surfs Jaws
© Frederico Pompermayer, P’ahi / JAWS
While the challenge of riding giants that Red Bull Magnitude offers is obvious, the event also serves to build connections among women big-wave surfers. It creates new friendships and support networks, which in turn open the way to further progression. “Big-wave surfing has brought me to such a good place in life, and I’ve met so many friends ever since Red Bull Magnitude began,” says returning competitor Maddie Anzivino, the North Shore’s only female lifeguard and returning Red Bull Magnitude competitor. “Every girl who surfs big waves is in it for the same reason — they just love that feeling.”
With the El Niño weather pattern already turning on the swell machine in the North Pacific, the 2024 edition of Red Bull Magnitude looks set to go even bigger than ever before. On Saturday, Red Bull Magnitude competitors gather for the event’s opening ceremony at Waimea Bay. Watch for updates as some of the world’s best women big-wave surfers chase the ride of their lives. “Riding big waves, I just feel so strong and equal,” says Lickle. Standing on the beach with their big-wave guns tucked under their arms, the women of Red Bull Magnitude are here to go bigger.
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