2024 SURFER Big Wave Challenge Wipeout of the Year Nominees

The first nominees for the 2024 SURFER Big Wave Challenge are here. And they’re coming in hot and fast with the Wipeout of the Year Award presented by Aquamar. We saw a lot of heavy slams taken this year, but none more so than Kipp Caddy at Shipsern Bluff, and Trevor Carlson Bianca Valenti at Mavericks. NorCal did some heavy lifting this wipeout season.

You can read more about each entry below and find out the winner of the wipeout of the year at the SURFER Big Wave Challenge award show in Nazaré, Portugal on October 19, which will be streamed online at surfer.com .

Kipp Caddy occupies rarefied air when it comes to slab surfing. The highlight reel he released this year encapsulates years spent sliding under some of the heaviest ledges around Australia. But to get to that level the New South Wales native has had to take some slams. He took a big one during a run of swell at Shipstern Bluff in April, going over the handlebars on one of the taller Shipstern’s waves in recent memory. So while Kipp’s tunnel vision is enviable, his wipeouts are not.

Related: Watch: Kipp Caddy Pays the Price on a Shipsterns Mutant

Things change in a hurry at Mavericks. Even for a 17-year North Shore and Jaws veteran like Trevor Carlson, who went from thinking he’d find the barrel of his life to face-planting at the bottom of a bomb and then took more waves nearly to the rocks at Pillar Point. He waited almost an hour for that wave next to Peter Mel and thought he had it all lined up. “I try really hard not to do stuff like that,” Trevor reflected. “But occasionally shit happens.”

Related: A Bird’s-Eye View of a Mavericks Wipeout

December 28, 2023, forever has a page in the Mavericks history books. Big and unruly but just clean enough to allow a jetski assist into the bowl, numerous talented surfers got their biggest Mavs wave to date. Bianca Valenti made a clean exit on a wave but also stumbled into a horrific spot. She fell at the bottom of a heaving peak, smack at the apex of the impact zone.

Related: Big Wave Surfer Bianca Valenti Endures a Gnarly Wipeout at Mavericks (Video)