The waiting period for the inaugural Women’s Waimea Bay Championship will kick off on 1st October. Contest directors Betty Depolito and Wrenna Delgado are hoping for an early season swell delivering waves up to forty feet. 

The Women’s Waimea Bay Championship will honor Kuhina Nui Ka'ahumanu, the favourite wife of King Kamehameha I, who championed the rights of native Hawaiian women in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Whilst it won't be the first women's big wave event ever held - the 2016 Pe'ahi Challenge was won by Paige Alms - the Women’s Waimea Bay Championship will be the first womens-only big wave surfing contest.

Twenty three competitors are listed for the event:

Makani Adric
Paige Alms
Easkey Britton
Justine Dupont
Emily Erickson
Michaela Fregonese
Sarah Gerhardt
Brittany Gomulka
Raquel Heckert
Keala Kennelly
Blake Lefkoe
Andrea Moller
Silvia Nabuco
Remi Nealon
Nicole Pacelli
Felicity Palmateer
Polly Ralda
Momo Sakuma
Tammy Lee Smith
Savannah Shaughnessy
Jamilah Star
Bianca Valenti
Carly Wilson

Find out more information at the event website here: waimeabaychampionship.com