Looking Ahead to the Big Wave Awards Ask 100 big wave surfers if they’d rather win the Big Wave World Championship or the Big Wave Ride of the Year award, and you’ll get a pretty even split between the two. While a world championship puts you in the history books, Ride of the Year honors go to the single best big wave ridden all season—and for most people, that one wave will probably qualify as the best ride of their life. Every April, the WSL Big Wave Awards celebrate the best in heavy water heroics, bringing together the hardest charging men and women for one night of red carpet awards, raucous partying, and hilariously inappropriate monologues by Greg Noll. This next weekend, the 2017 Big Wave Awards will acknowledge the best rides from March 2016 to March 2017. Here are my predictions for the winners. Wipeout of the Year: Wilem Banks While all of the nominees are cringe-worthy, Wilem Banks’ pin drop to lip explosion at Mavericks in late January is on another level. Big wave board designs have taken a monumental leap over the past decade, with more width and thickness and fuller templates giving surfers that extra boost...