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(Nikki Brooks/Contributed)
Two Santa Cruz surfers, Ken "Skindog" Collins and Savannah Shaughnessy, were recognized for their outstanding performances at the Billabong XXL Big Wave Awards, held Friday night at the Grove Theater in Anaheim. Each year, the XXL Awards honor the elite athletes who fearlessly challenge the ocean at its most powerful.
Like the Oscars of the surfing world, the Billabong XXL Awards are a night of Hollywood razzle-dazzle, complete with Hummer stretch limo arrivals, blue carpet fashion statements and swarming media. The only signs of surf culture amongst this gang of surfing glitterati and their paparazzi are a few Hawaiian shirts, an overwhelming number of Vans shoes, and sunbleached hair atop wetsuit neck tans.
"The XXL awards are just acknowledging what a crazy bunch of guys are doing around the world," Santa Cruz's Ken "Skindog" Collins put it simply.
In typical fashion, Friday night's award gala featured the kind of antics only the surf world can bring to formal events. Flanked by a pair of Playboy girls, famed big wave rider and award presenter Greg "Da Bull" Noll dropped his trousers in front of the entire theater [revealing his signature "Jailhouse" boardshorts].
After heckling big wave hellman Nathan Fletcher for going missing during the awards, The Foo Fighters rocked the theater and performed a string of cover songs in true undercover style as the band Chevy Metal.
Nathan Fletcher was nowhere to be found when it came time
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to accept the Monster Tube Award, his first award of many on a night that turned into a tribute to Fletcher's prowess in big waves. He took home three of the seven awards. Luckily, dad Herbie Fletcher was on hand to jump on stage and accept the award on his son's behalf.
"This is the most radical thing I've ever seen," the elder Fletcher told the crowd.
When Nathan Fletcher finally made it on stage later in the awards ceremony, he was moved to tears as he shared with the audience how a single wave at Teahupoo changed his life.
The night contained moments of somberness as fallen surfers Sion Milosky, Andy Irons and Surfline founder Sean Collins were honored and remembered.
The packed theater was stuffed full of standing room only attendees, an audience eager to witness the daredevil antics and death-defying wipeouts that most surfers only have nightmares about.
Case in point: Garrett McNamara's 78 footer, a Portuguese bomb that earned McNamara the Biggest Wave Award.
The awards featured seven categories: Ride of The Year, Biggest Wave, Paddle In, Tube, Wipeout, Men's Performance, and Women's Performance. Each category contained five nominees, with the exception of Ride of the Year, which had eight.
Over the past 12 years, the Billabong XXL Awards have brought hype and recognition to the world of big wave surfing. For better or worse, the XXL Awards have spurred the pursuit of big waves and inspired the athletes who ride them.
"I don't know any of you people, but I have to thank you, because 20 years ago when I started all this nobody cared," said big wave surfer Dave Wassel to the audience after winning the Monster Paddle In Award for a 53-foot wave he rode at Jaws.
Santa Cruz surfer Ken "Skindog" Collins was nominated for the Monster Energy Paddle In Award based on his smooth-sailing performance on a glassy Mavericks behemoth he tamed Feb. 8.
"That wave was the biggest, glassiest most perfect wave I've ever ridden at Mavericks," Collins said, adding, "That, to me, is the reward itself. The awards that you get from riding a wave, that's just the icing on the cake."
Calling Wassel's winning wave "massive," Collins said the Monster Paddle In award was well-deserved.
"Wassel's been pushing the limits in big waves for years now without recognition," Collins said. "I'm really stoked for him."
A Santa Cruz surfer has been nominated for an XXL award every year since 2004. Collins won the $50,000 Ride of the Year award in 2007, the same year he won took Monster Tube award for a wave estimated at over 50 feet that he caught near Puerto Escondido, Mexico.
"To be nominated for the Paddle In award meant a lot to me," Collins said of his nomination. "Paddling in means so much more because its 100 percent the individual."
Savannah Shaughnessy was nominated for the 2012 Girls Performance Award for her envelope-shredding paddle-in performances at Mavericks and Puerto Escondido over the past year. Shaughnessy's submission included five photographs of Shaughnessy sliding down the face of a massive wave at Puerto Escondido, Mexico, taken by Santa Cruz photographer Nikki Brooks. Brooks was present at the event as well.
This wasn't the Santa Cruz charger's first nomination; Shaughnessy received her first Girls Performance nomination back in 2010, when she lost to Brazil's Maya Gabeira.
"The future of women's big wave surfing is definitely in paddling [as opposed to tow-in surfing]," said Shaughnessy before the event. "I think that, as a woman, if you're doing it for the right reasons, train, take your beatings like everyone else, take off deep and keep showing up; you'll be accepted and people will come to respect what you're doing whether you're a girl or a guy."
Judging by the nomination -- and the enthusiastic support of Shaughnessy's friends and family at the awards -- she's already earned her spot in the lineup.
For the 2012 Billabong XXL Girls Performance Award, Shaughnessy was up against Hawaiians Keala Kennelly and Paige Alms, and Brazilians Maya Gabeira and Silvia Nabuco. Gabeira took home the award.
Gretchen Wegrich's Stoked and Broke appears every other Sunday. Contact her with feedback and story suggestions at sports@santacruzsentinel.com.