History was made at the 2016 Big Wave Awards, when Keala Kennelly was awarded the Pure Scot Barrel of the Year in an open gender category, for that mutant Chopes bomb she rode in July of last year. Big wave surfing, until recently, was the ultimate boy’s club; a culture built on the premise of fearlessness, on the Eddie would go slogan, on ‘manning up’ to a challenge. But KK’s efforts represent the ultimate game-changer. And thus, I thought it the perfect moment to interrogate that old idiom, grow some balls. It gets thrown around as a way of questioning masculinity, as a way of saying get tougher, braver, stronger – and there is no element of the sport that demands more courage than big wave surfing. A number of…
