PRESS RELEASE - No Fear Team Rider Garrett McNamara Wins XXL Monster Paddle Award

On Friday evening, April 13, 2007 and a place in Orange County, California called The Grove, the 2007 BILLABONG XXL GLOBAL BIG WAVE AWARDS took place in the epicenter of the American surf industry (make that global surfing industry). With a few thousand surf enthusiasts present in the big hall, all of them there to hoot, holler and cheer for the surfers who had been nominated to potentially win Billabong XXX Global Big Wave Awards, it was a night to remember. Especially for a surfer named Garrett McNamara, because when one envelope in particular was torn open, a piece of paper removed from it, and the contents of that piece of paper read aloud over a microphone, it was declared that Garrett McNamara had won the Monster Paddle Award. McNamara, of Haleiwa, Hawaii, USA was given a big oversize, make believe check for $15,000, his reward for catching, riding, and surviving a Godzilla-like wave at Maverick’s on December 14, 2006. (McNamara also won Surfline Men’s Best Overall Performance Award for the deed). 

Later that evening in The Grove, Garrett McNamara explained the wave that won him the XXL awards. “That day — December 14 — was perfect and glassy and the waves were at about 18-to-20 feet,” he explained. “So I see this one perfect wave coming, and think to myself, should I turn around? I thought, not yet. It was one of those glossy California waves and I wasn’t sure. So the wave got right up on me, I turned around and shoved the tail in. The board stuck immediately and I made the drop. It felt perfect — like cutting butter with a hot knife. I was upside down and backwards, but in control. I felt great. I got to the bottom and looked up and wanted to try and make the turn, but I could see it was all about to come down on me. I took a pounding, but it was nothing out of the ordinary. When Peter Mel came up and grabbed me on his jet ski, he was just freaking out. He was saying, ‘Oh my God! That was the biggest wave ever paddled into here! No, that was the biggest wave anyone has ever paddled into anywhere! That’s it, man! You’re going to win every award there is!’ I guess he was right!”

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