While most sports fans were busy watching the 49ers/Cowboys’ game Sunday night, I was able to catch the conclusion of The Eddie Big Wave Surfing event being held in Hawaii. That event was broadcast live on the net and I was able to watch the last two heats of it along with the awards’ ceremony.
As I did so, I was texting back and forth with my daughter Ryan who was attending the event. That is her above posing with Pro Surfer Peter Mel who was competing in The Eddie. Somewhere along the line she asked me who was ahead on the Leader Board. I had to tell her that no Leader Board was being shown per the event organizers’ directions. The commentators on the broadcast I was watching noted how difficult it made for trying to ascertain how everyone was doing rank-wise.
Not until after the event was over and the awards were given out, did we the viewers, or anyone for that matter, know who had won. The surfers themselves competing in the event did not know who was in the lead until it was officially over and announced. Little weird because part of the appeal of watching sports is knowing the score and rooting accordingly for your favorite team or person to win.
However, all that said, maybe you don’t need to know. When Ryan asked me during the event what the Leader Board showed, I texted her back and replied “I don’t know, but this Luke Shepardson guy seems to be doing pretty good.”
In what would be a nice hometown hero story, Luke won The Eddie, the most prestigious surfing event in the world. Here is his story:
That Luke is a lifeguard just as Eddie was makes the story even cooler (click here.) In fact Ryan informed me that earlier in the week Luke was responsible for rescuing one one of the pro surfers who got in trouble while surfing at the North Shore.
On a down note however, while Luke won $10,000 for winning The Eddie this year, back in 2016 when the event was last held, the winner received $75,000 (click here.) Back then the event was sponsored by the Quicksilver folks but terminated shortly afterwards (click here for story.) The Eddie’s organizers may want to revisit the whole corporate sponsorship thing because as we all know – money talks. Who knows – with a little sponsorship, they may even be able to spring for a Leader Board to tell folks who’s doing what when The Eddie is on.
Mentioning of Quicksilver leads me to them as in Messenger Service, These boys only had one tune of theirs’ hit the charts, but it was a great one. Listen for the guitar work – it will take you home!
