Cande, Valen and Manny Resano surfed the end-of-year swell in Waimea
And then Manny left for Mavericks. “It was a great New Year, without toasting, but surfing a lot,” says the Argentine and Nicaraguan in an exclusive story for DUKE
There was a lot of anticipation about the swell all over Hawaii because they had put Eddie Aikau on yellow and a huge swell was expected. I was in California surfing, I got to Hawaii and, well, people always talk about how “it’s going to be huge, it’s going to be huge.”
So when I arrived the girls were a little worried. And I told them to stay calm, that what they have to do is look at the sea and see the buoys and draw their own conclusions.
So the swell started around 9 in the morning, more or less, and Waimea still hadn't broken, we went to see the ocean and wait for the swell there, the other beaches were bigger and everyone was surfing, but I told them "let's wait."
Waimea was like six feet high, there weren’t even any waves, and the girls were like, “It doesn’t even break!” And I was like, “Wait, when we see one, we’ll change and go into the water.”
Suddenly we saw a set of eight Hawaiian feet and I said to them: “Ready, into the water, here in Hawaii the sea rises quickly.” We changed and after 15 minutes we were back on the sand and we saw the first set which was big, 12 feet.
Go to photo 3 of this carousel to see Valen going down in the air deeper than the rest:
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Happy New Years from Waimea! Thank you Johnny lopes for letting me borrow this board, it's sick💫🦜
We got in straight away, we were among the first and the truth is that the best part of the swell was there at the beginning and many people didn't get in because with the swell increasing sometimes it's complicated because you don't know how big it's going to get or how far back it's going to break. So, you see the sets growing and you don't know when it's going to stop.
So that was the most intense part: Being in charge of them, I saw some sets of 18 Hawaiian feet come out and even a few more, some that were close to 20.
But the truth is that they did very well, they were calm, very good, they caught their waves, we surfed for four hours and then one more session. And the next day it was smaller and they surfed two more times, they caught more waves and the nice thing was that the last session, on the 31st, I stayed on the beach with my wife and they went to Waimea alone, there were other surfers but their confidence in themselves and my confidence in them is growing.
It was quite significant that they already grabbed their boards and headed to Waimea.
That was the 31st and from there we went home and I got on a plane and came to run Mavs. So the 31st at night found me on a plane sleeping, the best way to spend the new year was surfing swells between Hawaii and California; it was a great new year, no toasts, but lots of surfing.
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Related Notes:
Cande Resano's first time in Waimea
At 13, the Nicaraguan dared to go to the bay one big day and took down some bombs. Here she tells it in an interview
Manny Resano has his segment in the new Mavericks movie
“Manny’s Day” is the name of the Nicaraguan and Argentine section of the film Next Level by Powerlines Productions
Last Friday the season opened at Mavericks and Manny Resano was present
And the Argentine and Nicaraguan received praise from the locals, once again
Now available! Manny Resano's segment in Next Level, the Mavericks movie
And it lives up to expectations
Manny Resano chosen in Surfer's article as one of the 5 best "unknowns" of Mavericks
“Manny is the definition of that person who does it because he loves it,” said young local star Luca Padua in the article about the Argentine-Nicaraguan surfing in one of the heaviest waves on the planet.
