Red Bull Magnitude winners Paige Alms and Izzi Gomez discuss the changing landscape of women’s big wave surfing

Red Bull Magnitude Overall Winner, Paige Alms, and Best Tow winner, Izzi Gomez spoke to FanSided about this year’s contest. 

For the third year in a row, the ladies of big wave surfing hit the water in search of the biggest and best ride of the winter.  Created back in 2020, the Red Bull Magnitude contest was the first-ever female-only big wave competition. In the sport of big wave surfing, the women’s field is just a fraction of the men’s and often get overlooked. Now, these hard-charging women have the spotlight as they get three months every winter to show the world what they can do on these monster waves.

2023 saw some of the best conditions in Hawaii’s big wave spots and the roster of over twenty athletes from all over the globe took to the water to compete to be the best. Places most of us can only dream about riding like Pe’ahi aka Jaws, Waimea Bay, and the Outer Reefs, were the playing field for the competition this year. After three months, all athletes sent in their wave submissions and the winners have been crowned.

Red Bull Magnitude 2023 winners have been announced

• Overall Winner- Paige Alms
• Best Ride: Skylar Lickle
• Best Tow: Izzi Gomez
• Breakthrough Performer: Felicity Palmateer
• People’s Choice: Anne Dos Santos

Overall winner Paige Alms spoke to FanSided about what this win means to her and how important it is to have a contest geared exclusively towards the women of big wave surfing.

“This event is so special and I’m so grateful that Red Bull puts this event on especially here in Hawaii,” Alms said. “It’s just so rare to have something that is solely based on big wave surfing and just for the women. It’s really, really special. This season we had an amazing showcase of incredible surfing from all of the women…it’s giving a platform for all of the women, but I’d say more so for the women that maybe haven’t had opportunities like this before. It’s just giving this opportunity for everyone and the playing field is equal. So it’s really exciting that girls that maybe you haven’t heard of before get to go out and showcase their surfing and Red Bull has given us this platform to actually like show it to the world.”

The Red Bull Magnitude contest was put in place to give the women of big wave surfing the spotlight and resources that they might not otherwise have. Red Bull provides safety crews and film crews for the athletes at many of the locations that could be used in the contest.

The thing about this contest that sets it apart from the standard surfing contest is that it is an online format. This means the contestants get to pick and choose their waves, the locations, and the times at which they ride. This can create barriers in itself but the fact of having a platform like this for females only is changing the landscape of big wave surfing.

Best Tow winner Izzi Gomez seconds her mentor Alms’ sentiment and adds how it feels to be a part of a contest that puts female athletes first.

“I feel like even in the past with other events, like the big wave awards or something, because there’s such a bigger pool on the men’s side, I feel like we’re always kind of overshadowed by that,” Gomez said. “So the fact that we have our own thing now, just for the women is so awesome. I feel like ever since this event started, it’s obviously a combination of us pushing the sport, but because there is an event now that’s giving an opportunity to make some money and actually do something in the sport. I feel like there’s been such a huge growth in how many girls I see out in the lineup at Big Wave spots. So it’s super cool and yeah, I’m just stoked to be a part of it.”

Women’s big wave surfing is on the rise and for the first time this year six female riders were included in one of the most prestigious big wave events in Hawaii. Alms, along with five others competed in The Eddie Aikau Big Wave International, marking it as a historic day in women’s big wave surfing. Competitions like the Red Bull Magnitude and athletes like Alms and Gomez are paving the way for the next generation and doing it while riding some of the biggest waves in the world.