‘The Eddie’ surfing competition has gone ahead in Hawaii after waves of 20ft gave it the green light.

A rare and legendary surfing competition has gone ahead in Hawaii after extreme waves reaching over 20ft at Waimea Bay gave it the green light.

‘The Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau’, fuelled by Monster Energy, took place on Tuesday 8 December, after the event celebrated its 25th anniversary just a week earlier.

The only specially sanctioned surfing invitational by the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP), the competition has been run just eight times now in 25 years – because it requires only the most extreme waves – at least 20ft high during the annual one-month holding period.

Eddie Aikau was a celebrated Hawaiian surfer and lifeguard who died in 1978 at the age of 31, after capsizing in a Hokule’a – a traditional voyaging canoe – en route from Hawaii to Tahiti. Eddie was a direct descendant of Kahuna Nui Hewahewa, the highest priest of Hawaii in the early 1800s, who became the caretaker of Waimea Valley, from the mountains to the sea.

Over 100 years later, Aikau picked up the family torch as caretaker of the Bay – its first official lifeguard. His big debut at Waimea Bay came in 1966, when photos of him were published in Life Magazine that year, and in 1969 the Bank of America used Aikau in a nationwide billboard campaign.

First-time entrant Greg Long (24) from California took the winning prize of $55,000 (£34,000), closely followed by nine times world champion Kelly Slater. Long commented: “It’s a dream come true for me. Riding big waves is my passion and I’ve been following The Eddie since I knew exactly what it was, I was probably 12-years-old just getting into surfing.”

The Monster Drop Award, for the “most hellacious-but-successful takeoff of the contest”, went to Chile’s Ramon Navarro, who also finished fifth overall.

Also his first time in the event, Navarro’s winning wave was one of the last of the competition; “a huge, seemingly endless drop on his backhand, followed by a detonation of whitewater that he emerged from and then stuck with all the way to the beach”, according to the website, earning him a perfect 100 points.

A total of 28 surfers were invited to take part in the event at Waimea Bay, chosen by a poll of the surfing community.

Organisers had been watching weather and wave conditions in the seas around the US state and announced early on Tuesday morning local time that the competition would run.

Thousands of people gathered on beaches and cliffs to watch the world’s greatest surfers tackle the waves – as high as 40ft – and people travelled from as far as South Africa and Australia to be there.

For more information and coverage of the event, click here.