Patagonia NZ

How often do you actually surf Waimea? At home on Maui, you're surfing Pe’ahi all the time, but do you surf Waimea much? At all?
Nope [laughs]. The last time I surfed Waimea I was 16 or 17 and it was only, I don't know, 10 feet, 12 feet maybe. And I've never gone over there for a swell. Anytime Waimea is actually proper and good, Jaws is firing at home and it's hard to leave. You know, I think Jaws is by far the best big wave in the world, so it's hard to leave home when those swells pop up elsewhere. So, I definitely could’ve used a few more hours out at Waimea to just figure out the lineup. I felt like at both of the ends of my two heats, I was just starting to see the pattern and understand how the wave breaks and where it breaks. It's very different to Jaws in the sense that at Jaws, a set’s coming and even if you're in the spot, you're still paddling out toward it. Right? Like paddle out to meet the wave and then you turn around and go. At Waimea, it was predominately breaking in one location and it's basically just a slab and if you paddle out, you're too far out. That being said [laughs], when there's closeout sets at Waimea, you don't really wanna get stuck on the inside, so you constantly paddle out. It was tricky. I'd love to surf it more like that and with nobody out, but I'm not really psyched on leaving home to go surf with 70 people out at Waimea.

Can you tell me about getting your Eddie invitation? Did you know it was coming?
Yeah, I was alternate four years ago. When they first invited Keala, I was her alternate. At that time, we weren't expecting it, and it was a huge honour to be there at the Bay for the ceremony. The first time I’d been to the Eddie ceremony I was think I was 12 or 13. I was staying with Coco and Mason [Ho] for a contest and Uncle Mike [Michael Ho] is like, “Oh, the Eddie ceremony’s today. You're coming!” I was just a kid, and I had no idea I'd even surf there one day, let alone be in the Eddie. The year I was an alternate, the ceremony was one of the most magical experiences of my life. Like that ceremony was seriously one of the most profound, mesmerising and spiritually powerful experiences of my life. It was a proper Hawaiian blessing there at the Bay, all sitting in a circle and then doing the paddle out. It was really cool, but the event never ran. The next year, they added a few more female invitees, and I was an invitee that year, but then Covid shut everything down. When they announced there were six invitees this year that was really cool to see. It's just the start but this is where the sport's headed, giving the women an opportunity to be out there. You have to start somewhere. I think it was really cool to be surfing heats alongside the men. I had two heats with Uncle Mike, which was really special for me. Like, I used to sleep on their couch as a kid doing NSSA contests, so to surf two heats with him was… I mean, he's an absolute legend, but he is also a dear family friend, and it was really cool to do that. I think that was my highlight, getting to surf with him.

You could sense the day was really hitting Uncle Mike deeply.
Yeah, it was. When he said, “This is gonna be my last one,” at the Eddie ceremony, I was like, yeah, sure. Then I talked to him after the event and he's like, “Nope, that was the one to call it. It's time to pass it on.” And I mean, the guy is 65 and was full sending it. It was really, really special to see him out there and to surf alongside him.

What did you see when you got to Waimea in the morning?
[Laughing] We got there at 5:15 in the dark and there was nonstop backed-up traffic. We stayed right near Pipe and people were walking from Pipe all the way to Waimea. We pulled in and there was supposed to be parking for all the competitors, but the security guy says, “There's no more parking.” I'm like, “I'm really sorry, but I'm a competitor. I have to park here.” They shuffled some cars, and we pulled up and it was just jam packed. There were thousands and thousands of people on the beach already. It was pitch dark and you could just hear the roar of the waves. As soon as the sun came up just a bit and you could actually see the waves breaking, we knew right away that it was on. Like, I mean, we could tell by the buoys, but I mean, what we saw at first light, it was like, this is just the beginning. It's gonna be firing.

Who did you have in your corner for the day?
I was really lucky. The day before I was flying over from Maui, I did a workout in the gym with Shaun Lopez and my friend, Izzy Gomez. We did a big-wave activation just to kind of get my body all fired up. Shaun asked me, “Hey, do you have anyone over there to look after you?” Because I’d never really surfed Waimea. I know all the guys would help me, but he's like, “Oh, Uncle Dennis [Pang] would be psyched to help you.” I was like, that would be really cool. So, he called him on the phone. We were on speakerphone, and Dennis is like, to Shaun, “Are you coming over?” And Shaun said, “No, but my good friend Paige Alms is coming over.” And Dennis is like, “Oh, she rips!” And Shaun's like, “Well, you're on speakerphone with her!” And he's like, “Oh, I’m glad I said something nice!” But he was happy to give me some pointers and just show me the wave. He kept it to a minimum and more than anything just made me feel really supported. To have someone from the North Shore – someone who's been in the Eddie, who’s judged the Eddie, who has seen every single one – to have him in my corner I felt really supported, and it was really generous of him to give his time to do that. He spent the whole day with us on the beach, just so fired up. He said, hands down it was the best Eddie he's ever seen. The most consistent, the biggest and the best conditions, hands down.

I imagine there was probably a bit of pressure before your first heat considering the scene around the event, the surf, and the fact it was the first time women were surfing in it. But then I suppose on the flip side – I don’t know if ‘relaxed’ is the right term – but the Eddie is not competitive and it’s a different kind of event. How was all that sitting with you prior to your first heat?
I mean, for me just to be in the field and to be a part of it is one of the biggest honours I've ever had in my life. And that's how I went into that event. To have women in the event, the whole point was to be there, and I was like, I'm just gonna try my best. I tried to keep the thoughts outta my mind about expectations and all of that. It was like, hey, just go out there and try your best. I wasn't there to prove anything. I feel pretty confident in my ability, and I know the waves that I wanna ride and it was like, okay, just go out there and enjoy the moment. Who knows, I might never do it again. But it was funny because my first heat, I was really nervous and I was telling myself okay, get over the nerves, let's go. I paddled out early and I'm sitting there in the channel and I'm looking around and then Uncle Mike came out and I'm just sitting in the channel going, this is the sickest thing ever. I got really like fired up and I was really present, and I was like, this is one of the coolest moments of my life. I was just stoked to be a part of it, and I was ready to ride some waves.

How was your first wave?
[Laughs] Well, I like to ride waves to the channel, and I wasn't gonna go full ‘send’ in my first heat. I just wanted to successfully ride waves and I got one right off the bat, pretty quickly. I felt like really stoked on that. Then I tried to go for another one and poked midface, not poked but like kind of toppled over midface. I was fine. But the guys in my first heat were so gnarly. It was Twiggy [Grant Baker] and Billy [Kemper] and Jamie [Mitchell] all battling each other, and Luke [Shepardson, the eventual Eddie winner] was in both of my heats and he's like the underground silent assassin, just sitting further out and further over. He knows the waves that he wanted to catch were not on the slab. They're the ones that chip shot you out the back. Uncle Mike was also there. I'm like, these guys are so gnarly. And then of course at the last three minutes Twiggy is like, “Paige, any wave you want you can have.” I'm like, “Geez, thanks Twig.”

By the time you surfed your second heat in the afternoon the swell was seriously pulsing.
In my second heat I felt more relaxed because I'd already caught a wave and I was like, “Hey, let's just go out and enjoy this moment.” And it was actually one of the biggest heats of the day. They were all big, but it was pumping. We had multiple close out sets in that heat. I rode a wave with Ramon [Navarro] that was really cool. I looked back thinking we'd both be there to high-five, but he got detonated. I mean, I wasn't out there to win the contest. I ended up winning the women's – which they didn't even talk about it – but that event's about just being there, just being in the mix and sharing waves and sharing high fives and hugs. It was a magical day for that. And I mean that's what the Eddie represents. It's a community-based contest and it's not all about winning.

The energy in the afternoon looked incredible. It just built and built, and everything started closing out.
Yeah, totally. I mean there were huge sets in every single heat, but the trades picked up around midday and it felt like it was a little bit more groomed. The lines were a bit more organised with the offshore wind. But the second heat felt bigger, and just gnarlier, but it was also beautiful. It was that afternoon light there which is just so cool. And after riding a wave and paddling back out, I saw Luke get this huge wave, that was one of his tens. I like was baffled watching him go down the face of that thing.

Did you talk much with the other women surfing during the day?
Yeah, I saw Makani [Adric] in both of her heats. She was the heat before me, and I was in the channel cheering for her. I don't know her very well, but that was my moment with someone else in the water. And then of course Andrea [Moller] and Keala [Kennelly] are my besties, you know. So, we saw each other quite a bit throughout the day and I knew that Keala was gonna go full send. She always does. Leading up to this event she was kind of down on herself. She was questioning whether it was time to hang it up. She's 10 years older than me and she just had a crazy hip surgery. So, she was kind of questioning it. I'm like, “Dude, we’re finally here. We've been invited to this for years now and this is the first time it’s running. We're going for it!” And of course, she did! I was like, “Dude, you had no chance of making that wave!” We call her ‘Keala Senderly’. She paddled straight back out after that wipeout and got three more waves.

A couple of days later and people are still losing their minds over the Eddie and just going, how does surfing get any better than that? How's it sitting with you now a couple of days on?
I feel like I'm still processing it, and I feel like it's gonna be something that will take weeks, even years. There was so much energy and so many different elements of it all to take in. Like it was all of… everything. It was wild. And I'm just so grateful that I had the opportunity to see that and to be in the mix with that, the first Eddie ever run with women included. It's going to be something that I'm going to be telling my grandkids about, you know? [Laughs] Like, "That one time…”