Peter Mel had quite the 48-hour itinerary. He was one of a handful of surfers who competed in the 2024 Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational in December, drove to the airport at the end of the event, then surfed the same swell the next day Maverick’s. That is a true hustle only a few can pull off.
Of course, the 55-year-old from Santa Cruz crushed it. He handled the drop, shrugged aside the malevolent whitewater off his back and pulled into the maw of a heaving, breathing specimen. It is a wallpaper-worthy moment, one that captures a lifetime of experience and dedication to such a demanding spot.
“The waves move incredibly fast in those conditions — so fast that I had to gun it on my ski just to stay ahead of the wave,” Peter told Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle after the fact. “I’m thinking, ‘Wow, this is weird.’ Then the first wave I was towed into — that’s the fastest I’ve ever gone on a surfboard.”
While it’s not publicized the same as his big-wave exploits, Peter is an excellent surfer when the waves aren’t life-threatening, too. The guy is still sharp, still riding pointy Channel Islands, and is prone to nailing the carve of the session. When he arrived on the Maverick’s scene in the 1990s, he brought a commitment to turning on massive faces just like he would on a smaller scale. The wave he brushed off the whitewater that nearly unset him speaks to his comfort level on a surfboard.
Hoods off to Peter for this one. But that wasn’t the only Big Wave Challenge entry he got that day back in December. Hard not to cop a wipeout when the waves are that hectic. Even Maverick’s royalty must pay the tax once in a while. But not that often.
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