'The hardest thing is containing the froth'. It wasn't the answer I was expecting but it made perfect sense.

I'd just asked Mark Warren of Quiksilver Australia how hard it is to prepare for their In Memory of Eddie Aikau big wave competition. I was expecting to be regaled with frustrating tales of logistical nightmares – webcast equipment not arriving and the like – but the challenge, apparently, is to stay focussed while a continent-sized low pressure system bears down on Hawaii. It says much for the surfer as a businessman.

Part of the problem, Warren explains, is the amount of information he receives. Gone are the days when he was the authority on wave conditions via his long-running radio surf reports. 'With the internet everybody has an opinion on the swell these days'. And with that, this internet journo shifted awkwardly in his seat...

To cut through the static Warren listens to just one person, George Downing, the Eddie Aikau contest director. Downing is a big-wave pioneer and has run the competition since 1987. He watches the weather systems intently and his opinion is the only one that matters to Mark Warren and, for that matter, all of the contestants in the competition.

Of the current forecast for big waves, Downing says, "The system generating the surf is definitely gigantic and certainly as strong as predicted, covering roughly 18,000 square miles of the north Pacific." Yet as with most forecasts there is a qualifier, "But up to now, the strongest winds generating the open ocean swells have not been aimed at Hawaii. This can change as the system passes the dateline, so we will have to be patient."

So while Downing has called for a watch-and-wait situation contestants are flying in from all over the world. As for Mark Warren, he has had a team on 48 hour standby for the entire duration of the waiting period. All of them are now in transit along with, hopefully, their webcast equipment.

The last time the competition ran was in 2009 in the middle of a great run of North Pacific surf. Young Californian, Greg Long, was victorious on that day. For most surfers, however, the really memorable part of the 2009 event was the incredible water footage - Kelly Slater pulling into a closeout barrel, Mark Healey straightening out on a bomb – that was shown on the highlights package.

This year Quiksilver have stepped it up and the water footage will appear live on the webcast feed. Renowned heavy-water photographer, Mike Prickett, will be filming each wave from a PWC parked in the channel. There will also be a camera at the keyhole in the eastern corner of Waimea Beach. This angle will look directly into the shorebreak so if any competitor attempts to take it on, as Shane Dorian did in 2001 and Bruce Irons in 2004, then the camera will capture it.

As of Tuesday evening (Australian time) it appears likely that the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau competition will be held on Friday morning (again, Australian time). Live footage can be seen here.

Mark Warren is one of the good blokes of Australian surfing: funny, charming and with a brilliant contest record. He won the Duke Kahanamoku contest at 'huge Pinballs' in 1980 and met Eddie and Clyde Aikau during his very first surf in Hawaii. Few viewers will be as excited as Mark Warren if the contest gets held this week.