Landon McNamara wins Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational

Landon McNamara won first place at the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational on Sunday. He won $50,000 and 350,000 Hawaiian Airlines miles. 

The winner of the "Best Wave" award also went to McNamara, who earned a perfect score for the ride (in the video below) and won an additional 250,000 Hawaiian miles. It was the first time the same person won the "Best Wave" and placed first in the competition. He is also the first goofy-foot surfer to win.

McNamara's win makes it the third time in a row that an Oahu North Shore surfer has won. North Shore lifeguard Luke Shepardson won in 2023 and John John Florence won in 2016.

California surfer Greg Long won the “Aloha Spirit” award, which comes with $2,500. He was the winner of the competition in 2009. Earlier, he said this would be his last Eddie.

The prestigious surf contest — known as the “Super Bowl of surfing” — could only take place if wave heights at Waimea Bay were at least 20 feet on the Hawaiian scale, which measures from the back, between December 14, 2024 through March 13, 2025.

The last Eddie was held during the 2022-23 season, with Shepardson, a Honolulu Ocean Safety lifeguard, winning the event. (This year, he won sixth place.) The contest is named for Eddie Aikau, who was also a lifeguard at Waimea Bay. Aikau died when he was only 31, after the Polynesian voyaging canoe, Hokulea, capsized and he paddled toward the shore on his surfboard to get help.

Before that, the Eddie hadn’t been held since 2016, as conditions must be perfect for the contest to be called on. That year, Hawaii’s Florence won. 

This was only the 11th time the Eddie had been called on since starting in 1984. 

For this year’s competition, there were variable conditions, light winds, and a strong current. The swell grew over the course of the morning.

Tens of thousands of spectators flocked to Oahu’s North Shore to see the big wave surfers on Sunday.

For the Eddie, 45 surfers — 35 men and 10 women — were invited to compete. The 2023 Eddie was the first to include women — with six women surfers as part of that competition. On Sunday, multiple surfers dropped out because of injuries, with alternates invited to join. Laura Enever of Australia decided to leave the competition after her board fin cut her leg. Hawaii surfer Mark Healey ruptured his eardrums. Greg Long, the California surfer who won the Eddie in 2009, chose not to surf in his second heat due to an injury.