Grant Baker
We all have one. That wave that breaks in our slumber and inspires our daydreams.
When the coast is writhing with swell we know it’s there; roaring out of the abyss to meet the coast in the most triumphant of manners. We all have that wave, Grant “Twiggy” Baker’s is Dungeons; a leviathan found off the coast of Hout Bay, South Africa. Ominous, cold and sharky, Dungeons can make a man, or break him.
Twiggy launched his career surfing Dungeons; catapulting himself into the professional stratosphere with his win at the Red Bull Big Wave Africa event in 2003. He took his fearless approach and uncanny wave knowledge learned from Dungeons and began to chase monstrous swells around the world. A decade later, there isn’t a big wave on earth that he hasn’t thrown himself over the ledge of.
His trophy mantel is a testimony to his never say die demeanor and in 2014, he became a Big Wave Surfing World Champion. After all these years of two wave hold-downs, an endless travel log and with a Playboy model for a partner, nobody would of blamed Twiggy if he hung up his cape. But at 43 years of age, Twiggy keeps charging. Most recently winning the Puerto Escondido Challenge, threading three story tubes like it was head high.
Fundamental in his win at Puerto was Twiggy’s Quad. Having always favored his signature Thruster set, Twiggy came to us with the idea of offering a big wave 5-fin set, providing a Quad and Thruster option for all the keen chargers out there. Over the course of two years he found his sweet spot for a Quad was in the barrel, and there’s a new trophy on the mantel to prove it.
Without Twiggy, the benchmark for big wave surfing wouldn’t be where it is today. He not only inspires his peers to keep pushing, but he emboldens us to charge past barriers and further our capabilities as innovators.
