The World Discovers Latin America’s Big Waves And The Surfers Who Ride Them
Brazil's Carlos Burle made headlines surfing a 72-foot monster, while Chile's Ramón Navarro has made a name for himself riding the hidden breaks on his homeland. All photos courtesy by Red Bull.
HALF MOON BAY (KTVU) – More than a dozen of the world's best big wave female surfers challenged the Mavericks surf break Wednesday in a historic competition.
The competition was part of the WickrX Supersessions.
“The WickrX Supersessions brought us together,” said Wrenna Delgado, who traveled to Half Moon Bay from the North Shore of Oahu. “They had this awesome idea to support an underground women's sport. There's not too many of us (women big wave surfers) in the world … We're out there because we love the ocean and we love to surf big waves.”
Sarah Gerhardt from nearby Santa Cruz said the fact the women were surfing Mavericks on such a stormy showed how “gnarly” the group was.
“So we are out here braving these incredibly harsh conditions,” she said. “It shows how gnarly everyone is. I won't paddle out on a normal day if it was like this … Just to be out here with all these amazing women is history.”
Wednesday surf session had been in the works for months.
“This is a culmination of a 3-month-long project,” Gerhardt said. “It's so unique that I don't have the words to describe it. It's just incredible meeting some of the best big wave chargers who happen to be women.”
Gerhardt became the first woman to take part in the annual Mavericks big wave surfing competition back in 1999. She was later joined by Savannah Shaughnessey to be the only women every to take part in the early rounds of the event.
But the women competing hope that the male stranglehold on that competition will someday end.
On Wednesday, they were simply happy to have the popular wave break nearly to themselves.
“We are from all over the place,” Delgado said. “These aren't the best conditions but we are by ourselves pretty much,” Delgado told KTVU. “We all got a ton of waves and actually got to sit in the bowl which would never happen because there are a lot of amazing surfers out here.”
For more Bay Area news, check out wn.ktvu.com.
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